Thiem leapfrogs Federer after Indian Wells win

Dominic Thiem and Roger Federer pose with trophies after the Austrian's three-set win over the Swiss in the final. (AP)

Dominic Thiem climbed to a career-best ranking of fourth on Monday after clinching his maiden ATP Masters title with his defeat of Roger Federer at Indian Wells.
Austrian Thiem, who was also briefly ranked fourth in the world in late 2017, rose four places after beating Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday to deny the Swiss star a record sixth Indian Wells crown.
Federer, 37, dropped one spot to fifth as the top three remained unchanged with Novak Djokovic ahead of Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev despite the Serb's third-round exit in California.
Nadal, who pulled out of his semifinal with Federer due to a knee injury, will skip this week's Miami Masters as he targets a return to competition for the clay-court season.
The 25-year-old Thiem had fallen in two prior Masters finals, both in Madrid.
But he rallied for a third career win over Federer in five meetings, his first over the Swiss on hard courts.
"It feels just unreal what happened in this 10 days," Thiem said. "I came from a really bad form in all categories, and now I'm the champion of Indian Wells.
"It feels not real at all," added Thiem, the first Austrian to win a masters 1000 title since Thomas Muster at Miami in 1997.
Thiem earned the crucial break in the 11th game of the final set, connecting on two sharply angled passing winners off of Federer drop shots to give himself a break point which he converted with a stinging forehand winner. "He stayed cool under pressure there," Federer said. "When he got up to the ball, stayed calm, made the shot."
Thiem sealed the match after two hours and two minutes when Federer's backhand found the net and will now return to a career-high ranking of fourth in the world, bumping Federer down to fifth.
It was the second year in a row that Federer was denied in the Indian Wells final. In 2018 he missed out on three championship points as he fell to Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro in the title match.