13th March, 2018
World number one Roger Federer needed less than an hour to dispatch Filip Krajinovic at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in California on Monday.
Federer mixed overpowering serves and pinpoint groundstrokes to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.
Playing for a third consecutive day due to weather delays in Indian Wells, the 36-year-old Swiss showed no sign of wear en route a 6-2 6-1 thrashing of the Serbian.
It was the pair’s first-ever meeting.
Federer, who had looked slightly off his game in his rain-disrupted third round match against Federico Delbonis, was his dominant self on Monday.
He won 89 percent of his first service points while cracking six aces to just one double fault.
Krajinovic had no answer for Federer’s serve or relentless return game and ended up winning just 31 of the match’s 93 points.
With rivals Rafa Nadal, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray electing not to enter the tournament, the path appears clear for the Swiss to win a record sixth Indian Wells title.
This was even as Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori have both been eliminated.
In spite of the promising outlook, Federer insisted he was taking it one match at a time.
You can’t really look ahead to semi-finals, finals and speculate about who you could play,” he told reporters.
“I think that would be a mistake. I am on a good run right now and I want to maintain that. I have to stay sharp.”
Next up for Federer is a meeting on Wednesday with France’s Jeremy Chardy, who upset his countryman Adrian Mannarino earlier on Monday.