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Patna : World No 4 and winner of 20 Grand Slam singles title Roger Federer, 37, Switzerland, and World No 8 Dominic Thiem, 25, Austria, will clash in the men’s singles final of ATP Indian Wells Masters at California, USA, at 4 am on March 18, 2019. Federer is bidding for his 6th Indian Wells Masters title while 7th seed Thiem will be competing for his first Masters title..
Fourth seed Federer reached the final after his semi-final opponent and three-time champion Rafael Nadal, 32, Spain, withdrew from the contest ahead of the match on March 16, 2019, due to pain in knee. It would have been the 39th clash between the two players. Nadal leads Federer 23-15 head to head. Nadal had suffered knee injury during his quarter-finals match against World No 13 Karen Khachanov, 22, Russia. Nadal had reached the semi-finals final after three years without dropping a set in the tournament.
Thiem defeated World No 14 Milos Raonic, 28, Canada, in a three-set thriller 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 in the semi-finals on March 16, 2019, late night. Raonic though fired 17 Aces in the match to 5 by Thiem, who won a break point. Thiem’s winning percentage both on his first and second serve ( 82% & 67 %) was slightly better than that of Raonic ( 80% & 65 %). Both the players won 3 games each in a row in the match. Raonic committed 5 double faults to 2 by Thiem.