Going for a fourth title at Indian Wells

Today Roger Federer begins another campaign for his first trophy of the year at the season's very first ATP Masters Series tournament at Indian Wells, California.

After battling mononucleosis and consequently failing to defend his titles at the Australian Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships, the current world number one hopes to extend his lead over world number two, Rafael Nadal, who is the defending champion at the Pacific Life Open.

The Spaniard is currently just 350 points behind the Swiss in the ATP rankings, thanks to making the finals at Chennai and a semifinal appearance in Melbourne. He also reached the quarterfinals in Dubai where Federer was upset in the first round by Andy Murray.

Last year at Indian Wells, Federer lost in the second round to a resurgent Guillermo Canas who had then just returned to the tour after serving a ban for testing positive for drugs.

With a bit of match practice under his belt (i.e., the recent exhibition match with Pete Sampras), Federer will certainly look forward to regain the title which previously he won for three straight years, from 2004 to 2006.

As a seeded player in the tournament, Federer has been given a bye in the first round and will play his first match in the second round against another Guillermo, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Although Garcia-Lopez is ranked 61 places below Federer, the windy conditions which posed a problem at Indian Wells yesterday may be more of a concern for Federer. Let's hope he'll be able to fight off both and go on to regain the title.
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