The Men's singles final at the BNP Paribas Masters at Indian Wells saw 11 time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal face 2009 U.S Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro. Nadal was the slender favourite to win because of his past glories, but with Del Potro looking in great nick all week, the Spaniard was likely to be in for a real battle.

The Argentine played a brilliant first two sets but could not maintain his level of play as Nadal fought back from a set down to win 4-6. 6-3, 6-4 and complete a dream return to the hard courts by clinching a record 22nd Masters 1000 title, and his 53rd overall.

Former NCAA singles champion Bradley Klahn had his chances and he knew it. But in the end, he couldn’t hold off the tenacious former Virginia All-American Sanam Singh from India, who captured the USTA Men’s Pro Tennis Championships of Calabasas on Sunday, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (3).

Down 0-2 in the third set, and 15-40 serving, Singh awoke from his self-described “45-minute sleep” to save a total of four break points and win the third game of the final set on the final day of play at the Calabasas Tennis and Swim Center.

The women's finals at the 2013 BNP Paribas Open saw former world no.1s and two time finalists Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki square off for a chance at joining an elite group of 7 women (including Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova) who have won twice at Indian Wells. It was also a matchup of contrasting styles with the hard hitting Russian taking on the counterpunching style of the young Dane.

Maria Sharapova’s style raw aggression proved to be too much for Wozniacki as the Russian diva prevailed in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 needing only 81 minutes to win the 28th title of her career.

World No.2 Maria Sharapova edged out 13th seed Maria Kirilenko in an all Russian semi-final 6-4, 6-3 to move into the final for the second straight year at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Joining her in the championship match will be a resurgent Caroline Wozniacki, who fought back from a set down to upset 4th seed Angelique Kerber 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 setting up a battle of former champions.

Sharapova was just better on court than her compatriot Maria Kirilenko. Her serve was consistent and accurate throughout and the 13th seed could not force a single break. Moreover, the 2nd seed won 83% of points on her first serve. This proved to be difference in the opening set as the former world no.1 saved 6 break points and got the crucial early break for a 2-1 lead and carried on from there to eventually serve out the set 6-4.

The second men's semi-final at Indian Wells saw 7th seed Juan Martin del Potro take on World No.1 Novak Djokovic. The Serb was on a brilliant run this year and like his historic 2011 season was on a 22 match unbeaten streak since last October. This coupled with the fact that he had defeated Delpo 4 times in a row made him the overwhelming favourite to win the match. The Argentine, on the other hand was only recently getting back to playing at his best and was plagued with inconsistent performances in the past couple of years.

The 2009 U.S Open champion found top form today, and fought back from a set down to outhit Djokovic over three sets in a grueling encounter that lasted almost three hours, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The first of the two semi-finals at Indian Wells saw 5th seed Rafal Nadal take on 6th seed Tomas Berdych, a man he had beaten the last 11 times they had played. Such was Nadal’s dominance of the Czech that Berdych said prior to the match that he actually preferred playing World no. 2 Roger Federer or World No.1 Novak Djokovic to the Spaniard. Even so, this was the best opportunity he would have to defeat the world no. 5, seeing that Nadal was still in the midst of a comeback while Berdych came here on the back of good performances at the Australian Open, Marseille and Dubai, and hadn’t lost a set in the entire tournament.

In the end, those proved to be mere statistics, as the 11 time Grand Slam champion outplayed Berdych for the better part of the match to pull off a straight set victory 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and forty-three minutes to progress into the final at the 2013 BNP Paribas Masters.