Defending champ Federer frustrated by rain in second-round match at Indian Wells
ByPA Sport
Updated 11/03/2018 at 09:40 GMT
World number one Roger Federer was held up by rain as he began the defence of his BNP Paribas Open title at Indian Wells on Saturday.
Roger Federer of Switzerland cools down between games while playing Federico Delbonis of Argentina
Image credit: Getty Images
Federer, who already has two titles in 2018 after victories in Australia and Rotterdam, took the first set 6-3 against Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in just under 40 minutes.
The match was suspended due to rain at 2230 local time poised with the second set tied at 2-2, and no further play was possible.
Grigor Dimitrov will not be in round three after the third seed fell to Spanish veteran Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7/4) 4-6 6-3.
Dimitrov, winner of the ATP World Tour Finals in 2017, lost the first set on a tie-break 7/4 but took the second 6-4 after breaking the 34-year-old on both of his first two service games.
But Verdasco struck when it mattered, taking a 5-3 lead in the deciding set after breaking the Bulgarian and securing the match on the second match-point.
There were no such problems for Kevin Anderson or Tomas Berdych, who were straight-sets winners over Evgeny Donskoy and Max Marterer respectively, while Dominic Thiem saw off Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 3-6 6-3.
South Korea’s Hyeon Chung, who surpassed all expectations to reach the Australian Open semi-finals earlier this year, also advanced, taking nearly three hours to overcome Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (11/9) 6-3 6-3.
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