Maria Sharapova will face Caroline Wozniacki in the women’s final and Rafael Nadal will meet Juan Martin Del Potro in the men’s final today as the BNP Paribas Open concludes at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Maria Sharapova at Indian Wells in 2005. (Wikimedia)
Sharapova, a Russian seeded second, has not lost a set in her five matches in the tournament.
Wozniacki, from Denmark, lost the second set of her second-round match and the opening set of her 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber Friday.
Sharapova has defeated Wozniacki four of the six times they’ve met, including each of the last two.
“She’s always a tough opponent,” Sharapova said of Wozniacki, who is seeded eighth. “She’s a grinder. She makes you work really hard on the court and gets a lot of balls back and has a lot of different variety.”
Nadal has defeated Del Potro in seven of their 10 meetings, including each of the last three.
Del Potro reached the final by overcoming a three-game deficit in the final set to upset Novak Djokovic, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in a semifinal Saturday, ending the world’s top ranked male tennis player’s 21-match winning streak Nadal was a 6-4, 7-5 semifinal winner over Tomas Berdych, winning the final four games to defeat Berdych for the 12th consecutive time, including the 2010 Wimbledon final, and increasing his lead in the series to 13-3. Berdych’s most recent victory was in 2006.
“Today I was very nervous at the end of the match and was lucky that my serve worked amazing in the last game in the important moments,” Nadal said after winning his 13th consecutive match to improve to 16-1 for the year, the best start of his career.
“There are some things that you need to adjust, and victories like today helps (me) a lot for (my) confidence.”
Both the men’s and women’s winners will receive $1 million, while the runners-up will receive $500,000.
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