The 36-year-old, World number one Roger Federer survived a scare from unseeded Borna Coric to beat him 5-7 6-4 6-4 in the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday and set up a final showdown with Juan Martin del Potro who cruised to a 6-2 6-3 win over Milos Raonic. The victory kept Roger's hopes of winning a record sixth Indian Wells title alive but first he will have to get past the big-hitting Argentine, who got the better of the Swiss in the US Open quarter-finals in September.

The partisan crowd erupted when Federer broke Coric at love to take the deciding set and end the unexpectedly competitive two hour twenty minute battle against the 21-year-old Croatian on a windy morning in the California desert. An upset was on the cards when the speedy Coric used his ferocious backhand to take the first set off the Swiss, the first time defending champion Federer had dropped a set at Indian Wells in nine matches.

After the match Roger Federer said "Those 10 minutes when he was up a set and a break were tough for me to accept, I had to move on with it and say that I was just happy to stay in the game. Maybe he's going to get a bit nervous and I think that's exactly what happened," Federer said during an on-court interview."And I got a bit lucky too of course. It was a good match and a tough one for him."

The 36-year-old Federer improved to 17-0 for the year, his best ever start to a season.