Roger Federer, Nick Kyrgios, and Guido Pella wrapped up the February swing with titles before heading to Indian Wells for the first Masters 1000 event of the 2019 campaign.
Federer lifted a winner’s trophy for the 100th time in his career, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Dubai final last Saturday.
“What I like about [the 100th title] is that it gives some time to reflect on these great moments and great titles that are all important to me,” the 37-year-old Swiss commented. “It’s an achievement I never thought I’d make and something I only started thinking about in the past nine months. When you get to No. 98, No. 99, you start to think it’d be a pity to retire without hitting 100. It was nice to get there on the first attempt in a final.”
Kyrgios went on an epic run in Acapulco, taking out Andreas Seppi, Rafael Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, John Isner, and Alexander Zverev. The mercurial Australian survived both Nadal and Isner in third-set tiebreakers, upsetting the former after saving three match points.
“This is an amazing tournament,” Kyrgios said. “I loved it two years ago and have some crazy memories here.”
The 23-year-old doesn’t have any great memories from Indian Wells–yet–and he will have to knock off Novak Djokovic in the third round if he wants to make a run this fortnight. Kyrgios first awaits either Philipp Kohlschreiber or Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
“I couldn’t believe it,” the Argentine admitted. “[My] forehand usually…doesn’t go in (in Sao Paulo) because of the altitude. I hit it not so clean. But today was my day, it was in and I couldn’t believe it. After five finals, it was time that I won the match. I didn’t know what to say (or) what to think. It was a very emotional moment for me. I’m not used to crying a lot and today was unbelievable.”
Like Kyrgios, Pella would have been unseeded at the BNP Paribas without a title last week. Kyrgios is now the No. 31 seed in the desert, while Pella is the 32nd and final seed.
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finally, Pella