‘Fedal’ in doubles – 3rd time

Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, two hours after playing against each other in the singles quarterfinal at Indian Wells, came back on court, this time together as a team to advance to the doubles final, beating the Spanish duo (the defending champions), Rafael Nadal & Marc Lopez in straight sets. Federer and Nadal have one of the biggest rivalries in the Open era in singles (Nadal leads 14-8), but met in doubles just for the third time, and Federer beat his most difficult singles opponent for the first time.  The Swiss pair extended their winning streak to ten straight matches in their first tournament since winning the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In the last two seasons, Federer played only four tournaments in doubles, all of them with his compatriots as partners – three with Yves Allegro, one with Marco Chiudinelli. Federer nowhere played as many doubles tournaments as at Indian Wells, he participates here for the ninth time, played a final during his third visit (2002) partnering Max Mirnyi.  Below all three doubles matches in which the two best players of the previous decade, were involved from the opposite side of the net:

Indian Wells 2004, 2R: R.Nadal/T.Robredo d. R.Federer/Y.Allegro 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Rome 2007, 1R: R.Nadal/C.Moya d. R.Federer/S.Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(5)
Indian Wells 2011, SF: R.Federer/S.Wawrinka d. R.Nadal/M.Lopez 7-5, 6-3

Here you can check out
other doubles H2H’s of players with the biggest number of matches played in singles 🙂