Roger Federer remains one of two tennis players to have won the Indian Wells most number of times i.e. 5. And it all started in the year 2004, with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Tim Henman of the UK. However, 20 years on, one of the bigger moments of the tournament, and that year, for Federer was beating the great Andre Agassi in the semi-final. In so many ways, it meant that there was going to be a marked change in the tennis scene.
The year 2004 was a big year for Federer, one where he announced to the world that a new tennis superstar had arrived. The 20-time Grand Slam winner won 3 Grand Slams that year – Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open. In one year he took his tally from 1 to 4 in Grand Slams.
But it wasn’t just the 3 Grand Slams, a 23-year-old Federer also won his first BNP Paribas Open, Canada Masters, Swiss Open, and many more. It was a watershed year for Federer, winning 11 singles titles in one year i.e. 2004.
But getting back to why that Indian Wells semi-final match against Andre Agassi was so special, it was a clash of two titans from different generations. Agassi was the winner of the tournament from its 2001 edition and had reached the final a couple of times before that. He was already an 8-time Grand Slam winner and was also the local favorite, playing on American soil. To defeat him, that too by an up-and-coming player in his early 20s, was a monumental feat. And Roger Federer did just that.
Federer was already on the back foot, having lost the first set 4-6. He bounced back emphatically to win the next two sets 6-3, and 6-4 and clinch victory. In the whole tournament that year, Federer looked impregnable. He started the tournament in the second round since he was the topmost-seeded player. Barring the Agassi match, he won every other match in straight sets, and that too with huge differences in points on every set.
Andre Agassi retired from professional tennis two years after that. Whereas Federer soon bossed the tennis world after this tournament. It truly was the last link in a generational change in tennis.
Roger Federer had a triumphant time at the Indian Wells most of his career
Roger Federer won the Indian Wells 5 times in his career. That is more than anybody else, besides Novak Djokovic, who also won 5. While 2004 was the beginning of his winning spree, Federer won it the very next year.
In 2005, Roger Federer defeated another tennis star, this time from Australia, to win the title. He won 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in the final against Lleyton Hewitt to lift the trophy. Hewitt was the Australian Open finalist that year. Federer completed a hat-trick of wins in 2006, when he beat James Blake of the USA, 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 in the final.
With 3 Indian Wells titles on the trot, there was no bigger name than him in the tennis circuit at the time. However, post a dry spell, when Rafael Nadal and Djokovic kept winning, Federer returned with a 4th title in 2012. He defeated John Isner 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 in the final. His 5th and final title came in 2017 against Stan Wawrinka in the final, where he won 6-4, 7-5.
