Roger Federer holds the record for most wins at the Indian Wells Masters
The Indian Wells Masters is one of Roger Federer's favorite hunting grounds, as evidenced by his five titles in the Californian desert. The Swiss shares the record for most titles at the tournament with World No. 2 Novak Djokovic, but he stands alone atop the list of most match wins in the ATP 1000 event.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion has won 66 matches at Indian Wells, more than any other player. He has appeared in a mind-boggling 18 editions, another record, and has registered only 13 losses. Unsurprisingly, the 79 matches he has played so far are also a tournament record.
.@RogerFederer - Most Wins by Tournament (* = tournament record)
• Australian Open 97*
• Wimbledon 95*
• US Open 85
• Basel 71*
• Roland Garros 70
• Halle 67*
• Indian Wells 66*
The former World No. 1's first title in Indian Wells came in 2004, when he was the top seed. Then 22 years old, Federer defeated five seeded players, including eight-time Grand Slam winner Andre Agassi in the semifinals and Tim Henman in the final, en route to his maiden title.
2004 Indian Wells Men's SF:
(1)Roger Federer def. (4)Andre Agassi 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Federer advanced to his 1st Indian Wells final and would win the 1st of his 5 Indian Wells titles.
This was Federer's 3rd consecutive win over Agassi and it evened their H2H at 3 wins each. https://t.co/2GBIZuyatX
The following year, the Swiss successfully defended his title with a victory over former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the final. He repeated the feat in 2006, this time vanquishing 12th seed James Blake in the final to complete a hat-trick.
By doing so, Roger Federer became the first player to win the Indian Wells Open thrice on the trot. Only one other player has managed to accomplish the feat -- Djokovic, between 2014 and 2016.
Federer in 2006:
3x Grand Slams (AO, Wimbledon, USO)
4x ATP Masters Series (Indian Wells, Miami, Toronto, Madrid)
1x Tennis Masters Cup (Shanghai)
1x ATP International Series Gold (Tokyo)
3x ATP International Series (Doha, Halle, Basel) https://t.co/pD8E7vAg8U
The Swiss had to wait six more years for his next title. Seeded third in the 2012 edition, he defeated ninth seed Juan Martin del Potro (quarterfinals), second seed Rafael Nadal (semifinals) and John Isner (final) - all in straight sets - to win a record fourth title.
Federer's fifth and most recent title run came in the 2017 edition, where he was seeded a lowly ninth. The 20-time Grand Slam champion stunned fifth seed Nadal in straight sets in the fourth round. He then disposed of 17th seed Jack Sock in the semifinals to set up an all-Swiss showdown with Stan Wawrinka in the final.
The third seed was no match for his compatriot and succumbed to a straight-sets loss to hand the former World No. 1 his fifth title at Indian Wells. Courtesy of the victory, the Swiss also became the oldest man to win the event, at the age of 35 years and seven months old.
In addition to the five titles, the 40-year-old has also finished as the runner-up on four occasions. The losses came against Djokovic (2014, 2015), del Potro (2018) and Dominic Thiem (2019). The nine finals in Indian Wells are also a record.
The Indian Wells Open is the Masters tournament where Roger Federer has won the most matches
Roger Federer's 66 match wins at Indian Wells make it his most successful Masters 1000 tournament. After Indian Wells, the ATP 1000 event where he has been most successful is the Miami Open. The Swiss has won 56 matches (14 losses) and four titles in Miami.
Roger Federer: 12-1 in 2019 and 66-12 for his career at Indian Wells. He has won more singles matches here in the desert than at any other Masters 1000 event. By far.
#getty https://t.co/1tfjc1lI04
The Madrid Masters (formerly held in Germany as the Hamburg Masters prior to 2009) is his third most successful ATP 1000 event, having won 49 matches (six titles) and lost only nine.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion's least successful Masters is Paris, where he has won only 23 matches (one title) and lost 11. Despite never winning a title at Monte-Carlo, Federer has won 30 matches in the city.