Ninth seed Roger Federer takes on 15th seed Nick Kyrgios in the Men's singles quarter-final of 2017 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells on Friday.
Both the players have gone past some of the big names in the ongoing week in what has been a tough draw at Indian Wells. While Federer demolished Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-3 in his Round of 16 match, Kyrgios made light work of world number two Novak Djokovic in straight sets - 6-4, 7-6 to make the progress in the tournament.
Federer suffered a blip when he was ousted from Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last month after second round loss to unseeded Evgeny Donskoy right after a title-winning campaign at the Australian Open but the 18-time Grand Slam champion has hit form again and has not dropped a set yet in the ongoing tournament. With the exit of top seeds Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and title favourite Rafael Nadal, the 34-year-old will look to make use of the advantage to race to his fifth title in Indian Wells.
However, Federer will have his task cut out against the 21-year-old Australian, who is in fine form on hard courts in the current season. The world number 16 defeated Djokovic for the second time in 2017 yesterday as he had secured another straight sets, but hard-fought, win in the quarter-final at Acapulco last month.
Like his quarter-final opponent, Kyrgios has also not dropped a set enroute to the last-eight clash. The Australian youngster also has a 1-0 head-to-head advantage over Federer as he edged past the Swiss in a fiercely-contested Round of 32 clash at 2015 Madrid Masters 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 7-6(12).
With both players serving well in the ongoing tournament, today's quarter-final clash is expected to be tightly-contested as well despite the four-time champion having a slender edge over his opponent.
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