Day 3 at Indian Wells

All right Federer fans, it's late and I'm tired from a delightful but exhaustingly full day at Indian Wells.  But I can't go to bed without a short post from my incredible day.

When I found out Roger was playing the day session I decided I needed to splurge and spend the money to watch the daytime matches court side.  I sure am glad I did!  It was a wonderful day sitting 11 rows back from the court, right above where the players enter.  The day started out with Kerber defeating Wickmayer.  Next was supposed to be Rafael Nadal, which would have been a lot of fun to see.  Unfortunately his opponent, Leonardo Mayer had to withdraw with a back injury and Rafa ended up with a walkover.  I felt really sorry for his fans who had bought the pricey tickets just to see him.  Instead they moved over Blake/Fish vs. Raonic/Lopez, which ended up being a really fun match.  Wozniacki was next, one of my favorites, playing Vesnina in  pretty straight forward win for Caroline.  

And then the highlight of the day, Roger Federer vs. Ivan Dodig.  Watching him play court side is an experience that just can't be matched.  In spite of a very straight forward score of 6-3 6-1 I would say he wasn't playing his best, starting out at 0-40 in his first service game before finally managing to hold serve, and then really being handed the break with two double faults.  He managed to close out the first set and he started finding his game in the second set.  Out of the blue, though, all of a sudden I could tell something had happened and that he had tweaked his back.  Suddenly he wasn't serving normal and was even walking funny.  Thankfully he was still able to hit some beautiful winners to close things out quickly.  I was anxious to get back to my computer, though, and hear that he doesn't feel too concerned about it since he has some time before his next match. 

We closed out the day (after a very long wait in line) watching the Bryan Brothers play Isner-Querry and then the Murray brothers play Janowicz-Huey, which were both fun matches to watch.

Before I head to bed after a long day, here are a few pictures of the wonderful experience I had today:

 

 I have a lot more pictures but that gives you an idea.  And when I get home I will maybe post some that aren't just of Roger.  Tomorrow is my last day to attend the tournament and I hope to see him practice one more time if his back isn't bothering him too much.  If you are a Federer fan and haven't had the opportunity to watch him live I strongly suggest you do what is necessary to make it happen.  You definitely won't regret it - it's the tennis experience of a lifetime!