Nadal to Battle Djokovic for Indian Wells Title

Posted on March 18, 2007

No. 2 Rafael Nadal takes on No. 12 seed Novak Djokovic in the best-of-three sets final of the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells. Both players have yet to drop a set in five matches en route to the championship. The winner will receive 500 ATP Ranking points and $500,000 while the finalist collects 350 points and $250,000.

The second career meeting between the 20-year-old Nadal and 19-year-old Djokovic marks the youngest final in the tournament’s history. It is also the youngest ATP Masters Series final since May 1994 in Hamburg where (19) Andrei Medvedev defeated (20)
Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

In their previous meeting in the quarterfinals of Roland Garros last June, Nadal led 6-4, 6-4 when the Serb retired with a back injury.

Nadal is trying to become the first Spaniard to win the Indian Wells title since Alex Corretja (d. Enqvist) in 2000. He is also trying to become the first left-hander to win the title since Marcelo Rios (d. Rusedski) in 1998.

Nadal is appearing in his eighth ATP Masters Series final (6-1) and 21st career final (17- 3) while Djokovic is playing in his first ATP Masters Series title match and fifth final of his career (3-1). Nadal is also trying to win his fifth different ATP Masters Series title (Monte- Carlo, Rome, Canada, Madrid).

Nadal’s last title came at Roland Garros in June last year – his fifth title of 2006. In 2005 he won 11 titles, including four ATP Masters Series crowns. The Spanish left-hander has won four ATP titles on hard courts: ATP Masters Series Montreal and Madrid, Beijing (in 2005) and Dubai (2006). He also reached the ATP Masters Series Miami final in 2005 (l. Federer in five sets). He is 4-2 in his career in hard court finals.

Since his last title at Roland Garros, he has gone 12 tournaments without a title, his longest span since it took him 24 tournaments to win his first ATP title in 2004.

Djokovic will break into the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings on Monday (see Teenage Top 10 list below) for the first time in his career (from No. 13). He is the first teenager to reach the Indian Wells final since Andre Agassi (19) in 1990 (l. to Edberg). The last teenager to win the title here was Boris Becker (19) in 1987 (d. Edberg).

Djokovic enters the final with an 18-4 match record. He began the year with his third career ATP title in Adelaide (d. Guccione) before falling to Federer in the Australian Open fourth round. He has lost to two players this year: Federer (twice) and Youzhny (twice).