Federer stretches perfect start to 16-0

World No. 1 Roger Federer equalled his best start to a season to stay oncourse for a sixth Indian Wells title, while Borna Coric brushed aside ashaky first set to reach the semi-finals.  Federer booked hissemi-final spot and extended his season win streak to 16 straightmatches with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over South Korea’s Chung Hyeon onThursday. That equals the 16-0 start to the 2006 ATP calendar season. Ifhe makes it to tomorrow’s final and wins he will reach a career best 17consecutive wins.Switzerland’s Federer recalls parts of that streak but not all thetournaments he played in to get there. “Twelve years ago, a long timeago. I don’t know. What was I doing back then?” he asked. “I don’t evenremember what tournament I played first up and won. “I guess I had asimilar good start to the year. Back then I was on this massive streakof winning 30, 40-plus matches. It had already started the year beforethat, which this time it didn’t. I had to get it going again inAustralia. It’s a great start. Hopefully I can do one more and beat mybest streak on Saturday.”Federer put on an impressive display of serving and shot making, winning70% of his first serve points against Chung. He had just one doublefault and broke Chung’s serve four times in the one hour, 23 minute mainstadium match.“I’m happy I found a way. I started off really well, struggledafterwards, found my game back again and was able to protect it, savingbig break points early on in the second set,” Federer said.  “I think that was the key to the match, those 10, 15 minutes where Ibroke at the end of the first and then saved break points early in thesecond.”Federer clinched the victory on his second match point when he blastedhis 12th and final ace of the contest. He next faces Croatian Coric whooutlasted seventh seeded Kevin Anderson 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3). Earlier this year Federer defended his title at the Australian Open,picking up his 20th Grand Slam win. Last month he claimed his 97thsingles title with a victory in Rotterdam which helped him regain theworld number one ranking and become the oldest No. 1 player in ATPhistory.  And this victory guarantees he will hold onto the top spotafter Indian Wells. Former world number two Tommy Haas officiallyannounced his retirement from tennis at the BNP Paribas Open in IndianWells on Thursday, ending a career that spanned more than two decades. The 39-year-old German, a tournament director at the event, announcedhis decision in an emotional speech shortly after his close friend RogerFederer’s quarter-final victory. “I consider myself extremely fortunate that I was able play professionaltennis for a living for more than two decades,” Haas said to anappreciative crowd that included retired greats Rod Laver and PeteSampras. “The sport gave me cherished friendships, an ability to travelthe world, and opportunities to create incredible memories. It alsotaught me a lot about what it means to face challenges, battle back, andovercome them. To my parents, family, wife and children, thank you forall the love and support that you gave me over the years. And, to thefans, thank you for cheering me on throughout my career.” The German won 15 titles on the ATP Tour, the last two coming in 2013when he triumphed in Munich and Vienna. He reached a career-high rankingof number two in 2002 and made a total of 28 final appearances.  Haas,who turned professional in 1996, reached the Australian Open semi-finalsthree times — in 1999, 2002 and 2007 — as well as the last-four atWimbledon in 2009. A tough fighter who always bounced back from injury adversity, Haasunderwent a total of nine surgeries in his career and won ATP ComebackPlayer of the Year awards in 2004 and 2012. Haas, who won the silver medal for Germany at the 2000 Sydney Olympics,finishes his career with 569 wins — the last of which was a memorablevictory over Federer at Stuttgart last year.