When Roger Federer is blitzing backhands off the ground from the outset, Rafael Nadal knows he is going to have to be on his game. So when the three-time champion succumbed to his Swiss rival 6-2, 6-3 in little more than an hour at the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday he admitted he did not come up with the answers when it mattered most.
Nadal will shift his focus to capturing an elusive Miami Open presented by Itau crown now, having finished runner-up in Florida four times. He leaves knowing what he has to do next time to break a three-match losing streak against Federer – the first time he has lost as many matches in succession in their 36th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting.
“I think it was always that he returned well. But at the same time, it was obvious that I didn’t have the right answer for his returns,” Nadal said. “I needed to neutralise the points. I needed to neutralise his two first balls, and I didn’t … I was not good enough tonight to make that happen and he deserved the victory, for sure.”
Nadal was only able to muster one break point opportunity in the match and it came after he dropped his opening service game. He was not able to break the 36 year old’s serve throughout.
“I need to hit longer and I need to hit higher to create problems [for him],” Nadal said. “I was not able to do that, and then he [had the] advantage.
“The worst thing in that match for me was from the beginning I was at a disadvantage – broken the first game of the match, and then broken in the second game of the second set. So that’s so difficult to play against Roger this way.”
Watch Full Match Replays
The 30 year old was determined not to dwell on the fourth-round defeat for long. “When you feel that you are playing bad or you are in a bad moment, maybe it stays a little bit longer in your mind,” he said. “It is not my case.
“I started the season great, playing great tennis, winning a lot of matches. Today I didn’t play my best, but I am really confident I’m going to play well in Miami [next] week.”
Maria Sharapova will return from her doping ban in Stuttgart in six weeks time, but her participation at the French Open and Wimbledon remains in significant doubt.
The 29-year-old has been offered wildcards into the WTA tournaments in Stuttgart, Madrid and Rome. She will need another if she is to play at Roland Garros, and unless she makes a flying start when her career resumes, her presence at Wimbledon will be in the hands of the All England Club.
The reputation of the Grand Slams is linked intrinsically to the integrity of the sport. Will they take the view that once a ban is served, a decorated former champion like Sharapova should be entitled to unlimited invitations to the world’s best events? Or will they share the view of Andy Murray and Caroline Wozniacki that, after a doping ban, players should not be offered shortcuts into tournaments?
A former Grand Slam champion is currently free to accept as many wildcards as they wish, but that is a rule which is likely to be reviewed, according to the WTA’s chief executive. Steve Simon has also said – in an interview for BBC Sport in Los Angeles – that he is not personally in favour of changing the rule, as a doping ban “should not wipe out a career’s worth of work”.
Murray believes that ideally a player should be made to work their way back after a ban by accumulating ranking points in smaller tournaments. Wozniacki was even more direct with her language when she addressed the subject here in Indian Wells.
“When someone has been banned for drugs and something that is performance enhancing, I think that you deserve a second chance like everybody else. People make mistakes, but I think you should fight your way back from the bottom,” the former world number one Wozniacki said.
Other players, like Venus Williams and Simona Halep, believe Sharapova is deserving of wildcards, but it may be that a Grand Slam champion who serves a doping ban loses the right to unlimited wildcards in the future.
“Every rule gets looked at and reviewed, and I’m sure this may be one of them,” WTA chief executive Simon told me.
“If the members wish us to look at the rule, we will – that’s how our system works.
“My personal opinion is that it shouldn’t be adjusted unless we decide to not provide it at all and change the entire wildcard rule. I think the suspension is in place to deal with an action that occurred – I don’t think it should wipe out a career’s worth of work, and in essence that’s what people are saying.
“Maria has served a 15 month suspension, has had no income, has lost all of her ranking as well as her Australian Open winnings from 2016 – so she’s served a significant penalty for her actions.”
Sharapova will make her return in Stuttgart on Wednesday 26 April, which is the very day her ban expires and two days after the tournament begins. This has upset Angelique Kerber, the German who has won the title for the past two years and will return to the top of the world rankings on Monday.
Like Sharapova, she is sponsored by Porsche, the firm also sponsors the tournament, and she is unhappy the Russian has been granted a Wednesday start (although this is not without precedent) and a wildcard which could have been given to a German player. She described it as a “little strange”, although she is understood to have vented stronger feelings in private.
The organisers of the French Open have a big decision to make.
It will be too late for Sharapova to gain direct entry into the tournament. And to survive the cut for qualifying – which is made on 1 May – she would have to reach the final in Stuttgart. That would be a mighty achievement after 15 months out of the game, when faced with a field which includes eight of the world’s top 10.
The French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has said publicly he doesn’t think the French Tennis Federation should award Sharapova a wildcard and the initial comments of the new FFT president Bernard Giudicelli were not at all reassuring for Sharapova.
He told a meeting of the Roland Garros press commission – before he met Sharapova in California – that the tournament would prefer she returned when “completely rehabilitated”. He described integrity as one of their most important responsibilities and suggested it would be difficult to invite Sharapova at the same time as they have increased their funding for the fight against doping.
| Sharapova wildcard ‘disrespectful’ | Sharapova to return from doping ban in April |
| Andy Murray says players banned for doping should not get wildcards | Sharapova banned for two years |
After the French Open, the surface turns to grass. There are tournaments in the Netherlands, in Mallorca, and then three on British soil in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne.
The LTA says it is yet to discuss or offer wildcards to anyone. Sharapova would need a wildcard to enter at least two, and almost certainly all three of the British events. Announcements tend to be made late on (it is always handy to have a card or two up your sleeve), by which time Sharapova may be committed elsewhere. Whatever the outcome, it seems unlikely the LTA will offer the five time Grand Slam champion a wildcard months in advance so they can use her presence as a marketing tool to drive ticket sales.
Which takes us to Wimbledon. Sharapova would probably need to reach a semi-final and a quarter-final from the three events she will play before the entry list is revealed to avoid having her fate determined by the All England Club’s tennis sub-committee.
If she does not have sufficient ranking points, then Tim Henman could prove to be a significant figure. Henman is not only a board member but also chairs this committee, which traditionally meets to discuss wildcards on the eve of the announcement, which is scheduled this year for Wednesday 21 June.
The All England Club aspires to the highest standards and last year announced increased anti-doping measures. My sense from several conversations is that a wildcard may not be offered to Sharapova, if she does indeed require one.
That still leaves one final scenario. If Sharapova does not make the main draw by right, she is quite likely to have enough ranking points to enter qualifying. These matches are staged at the Bank of England Sports Grounds in Roehampton, where the public can come and go as they please and media facilities are limited.
The grounds seem ill equipped to host Sharapova and all those her presence would attract, but I understand improvements are already high on the All England Club’s priority list, and that ticketed entry is one option under consideration.
The rules on wildcards handed to players who have been suspended could be reviewed in the wake of Maria Sharapova’s return from a doping ban, says the head of women’s tennis.
But WTA chief Steve Simon says it would be unfair to “wipe out a career’s worth of work”, by changing the rules.
The Russian has been given wildcards to April’s Porsche Grand Prix and May’s tournaments in Madrid and Rome.
That move has been criticised by current players including Andy Murray.
Five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova will return on 26 April without a ranking after serving a 15-month suspension for testing positive for meldonium.
Ex-world number one Caroline Wozniacki said Sharapova’s wildcard entry to the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart is “disrespectful” to other players.
The Stuttgart event starts two days before her doping ban ends and she will not be allowed to attend until the day of her match.
“Every rule gets looked at and reviewed, and I’m sure this may be one of them,” Simon told BBC Sport’s tennis correspondent Russell Fuller. “If the members wish us to look at the rule, we will, that’s how our system works.
“My personal opinion is that it shouldn’t be adjusted unless we decide to not provide it at all and change the entire wildcard rule. I think the suspension is in place to deal with an action that occurred.”
He added: “Maria has served a 15 month suspension, has had no income, has lost all of her ranking as well as her Australian Open winnings from 2016 – so she’s served a significant penalty for her actions.”
By BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller
The reputation of the Grand Slams is linked intrinsically to the integrity of the sport. Will they take the view that once a ban is served, a decorated former champion like Sharapova should be entitled to unlimited invitations to the world’s best events? Or will they share the view of Andy Murray and Caroline Wozniacki that, after a doping ban, players should not be offered shortcuts into tournaments?
Read more
Channeling the same game plan that reaped the ultimate reward in the Australian Open final in January, Roger Federer has put on a stunning display of aggression to defeat fifth seed Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open. The Swiss prevailed 6-2, 6-3 to set a quarter-final showdown with Australian Nick Kyrgios and victory marked the first time he had defeated Nadal three times in a row in 36 FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.
Federer came out of the blocks in a hurry against Nadal on Wednesday. The Swiss ninth seed secured the opener 6-2, consistently finding his mark coming over the backhand to keep the Spaniard on the back foot.
Federer brought up a break point in the opening game, breaking when Nadal shanked a forehand into the stands for 1-0. He survived a break point and steadied to hold with a sublime backhand winner down the line for 2-0.
The Swiss continued to deliver off the backhand wing, his fifth backhand winner of the first set, which was followed by an explosive wrong-footing forehand winner to bring up a break point on the Spaniard’s serve at 3-1. Forced to raise his level, Nadal ripped an angled forehand crosscourt to draw the backhand error from Federer but it was a short reprieve. The Swiss secured the double break off a spectacular backhand return winner for 4-1 after 23 minutes.
Federer closed out the opening set in style, threading back-to-back forehand winners to bring up two set points and sealing it on his first with a serve-volley winner 6-2 after 34 minutes.
Determined to make a statement he would not go quietly, Nadal started the second set with authority, holding to love with a forehand winner and an ace out wide for 1-0. Federer’s aggression continued to gnaw at Nadal, however. His confidence surged further when he broke early for 2-1.
Watch Full Match Replays
Redlining at 3-1, the Swiss struck a backhand winner down the line to bring up 15-30 but the fifth seed stemmed the flow, holding for 2-3. The pressure remained relentless, however, from the 36-year-old Swiss. He held to love for 4-2 off an ace out wide and drew the error with a looping backhand to change up the quick-fire pace.
Nadal was rarely in control of a point and when serving to stay in the match, a forehand clipped the net and failed to trickle over handing Federer two match points. He took it on his first with a crisp backhand return winner into the corner.
Roger Federer played superbly to claim a third straight win over Rafael Nadal for the first time in his career and reach the last eight in Indian Wells.
The Swiss, 35, won 6-2 6-3 to follow up his Australian Open final victory over the Spaniard two months ago, when Federer won his 18th Grand Slam title.
He will next face Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, who upset world number two Novak Djokovic 6-4 7-6 (7-3).
Svetlana Kuznetsova was the first player into the women’s semis.
The eighth seed saw off fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-2 and next meets Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova or Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, seeded seventh.
In the pair’s 36th meeting – and first before the quarter-finals of a tournament since their initial meeting in Miami 13 years ago – Federer notched his 13th victory and third in a row.
Nadal, 30, had built his success against Federer over the years on attacking the Swiss player’s backhand, but Federer turned his weaker wing into a weapon in the Australian Open final, and if anything was even more aggressive in Indian Wells.
The Swiss crunched six backhand winners to none from Nadal as he played a flawless opening set, taking it in a little over half an hour.
Nadal might have hoped to profit from a surface markedly slower than that in Melbourne but it did nothing to curb Federer’s aggressive intent.
Another early break in the second set had Federer within sight of the finish line and he raced through with four breaks of serve to none to win in 68 minutes.
Kyrgios, 21, gave further evidence that he is now a force to be reckoned with as he blunted the Djokovic return game with another magnificent serving performance.
Djokovic was on a 19-match wining streak in the Californian desert, and bidding for a fourth consecutive title, but Kyrgios took their personal head-to-head to 2-0 as he repeated his victory in their first meeting in Acapulco 12 days ago.
But just as he had in Mexico earlier this month, Kyrgios gave the Serb nothing to work with as he powered through without facing a break point in nearly two hours.
The Australian grabbed the only service break of the match in the opening game, which proved enough to take the first set, and clinched the second after racing into a 3-0 tie-break lead.
“I am serving really well, that is creating chances for me to put pressure on their service games,” said the 15th seed.
“My mentality is improving and I am trying really hard to fight for every point and just compete.”
Japan’s fourth seed Kei Nishikori swept past American Donald Young 6-2 6-4, while on the other side of the draw Spanish 21st seed Pablo Carreno Busta and Argentine 27th seed Pablo Cuevas progressed to the quarters.
American 17th seed Jack Sock battled past Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 7-5.