Roger Federer, who recently became the oldest man to hold the No. 1 ranking in men's tennis at the age 36, will bring a 12-match winning streak (连胜) to the BNP Paribas Open, which starts this week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Federer, a five-time winner of the hard-court event and a 20-time Grand Slam singles champion, on Tuesday was seeded No. 1 in a field that has been given up by injuries to several excellent players. Among those missing are world No. 2 Rafael Nadal (hip injury), Stan Wawrinka (knee), who lost to Federer in the 2017 final, David Goffin (eye) and Andy Murray (hip surgery).
Federer, who has spent 305 weeks of his career at the top the Assn of Tennis Professional world rankings, must reach the semifinals (半决赛) at Indian Wells to keep his No. 1 status. If he exits sooner than that, Nadal would regain the top spot. Federer has a first-round bye (轮空) and a seemingly easy projected route to the quarterfinals, where he likely would face No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Five-time Indian Wells champion Novak Djokovic, who had a small medical intervention (干预) on his troublesome right elbow earlier this year, was seeded 10th in the tournament. Djokovic has played only four matches this year because of his elbow problems and hasn't played a tournament since he lost to Hyeon Chung of South Korea in the round of 16 at the Australian Open in January.
Maria Sharapova of Russia will face Naomi Osaka of Japan on Wednesday with their match scheduled for not before 5:00 p.m.
On Thursday, Serena Williams will play Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus will play Heather Watson of the United Kingdom during the evening session (7 p.m. start).
