Swiss tennis stars Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka won their opening doubles match at the BNP Paribas Open 2014 Indian Wells on Friday after the 2008 Olympic doubles gold medalists ousted seventh-seed Rohan Bopanna of Indian and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 6-2, 6-7, 10-6 in a match that was staged at the newly-launched Stadium 2 (which can accommodate up to 8,000 spectators).
“I don’t know if it was sold out, but it felt like very, very full,” said Federer, a four-time singles titlist at this ATP Masters 1000 tournament. “You’re not probably going to achieve that on center court (where capacity is 16,100) for a doubles. But that was a perfect setup, a feeling, and we can thank the tournament and (tournament owner) Larry Ellison for building such a court so quickly.”
“It’s nice to see the game grow and seeing people coming out and enjoying it. It’s great. I really had a great time out there with Stan today,” he added.
Federer and Wawrinka will have a busy Saturday as they both are contesting their opening round singles matches. Wawrinka, the new Swiss number one, won the Australian Open title last January.
