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Novak Djokovic beats Roger Federer to lift his fourth Indian Wells title

Novak Djokovic poses with the Indian Wells title

Indian Wells (US), March 23 (IANS)

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic outlasted Roger Federer 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2 to lift the Indian Wells ATP title on Sunday. It is Djokovic’s 50th career title. He went past his coach Boris Becker who had won 49 titles during his career.

The Serb was cruising to a comfortable victory when he led by a set and a break before Federer broke Djokovic’s serve for the first time in the match to force a tie-breaker. Djokovic lead 5-4 with a mini-break, but double faulted twice to hand Federer his first set point. 

The 17-time Grand Slam champion converted it to force a decider in the desert. Djokovic took advantage of a string of unforced errors from the Swiss maestro’s racket to win four straight games from 2-2 in the final set. This is Djokovic’s fourth Indian Wells title tying him with Federer.

In the head-to-head clash, Federer leads the series 20-18 and had won three of their last four meetings in tournament finals.

The Swiss committed 43 unforced errors to Djokovic's 35 in the match. It is Djokovic’s 21 st Masters 1000 title. Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are ahead of him with 27 and 24 Masters 1000 titles respectively.

Federer said: “I would like to congratulate Novak on a great final and a wonderful tournament. It's a great start to the season and I hope we can play some more this year.”

Djokovic added: “Tough luck Roger, it was a great tournament and you're a great champion and great competitor. It was a pleasure playing against you and, as you said, hopefully we can play some more this year.”

Twitter was abuzz after Djokovic’s win.

 

 

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