The Argentine is playing in his eighth BNP Paribas Open but he feels every year he is forced to play the world’s best players early on.
Del Porto is so annoyed with the competition that he no longer looks at the draw when it is made.
“Always. It doesn’t change. That’s the draw, what I expect for sure,” the world No 6 said when he found out his potential opponents.
The 29-year-old won the Mexican Open last week so heads into the Indian Well in top form.
He was grateful to be drawn in the opposite half to world No 1 Federer, however, he still has to face the likes of Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev if he wishes to reach the latter stages.
But Del Porto insists he is confident ahead of the California event, which gets underway today.
“I’ve got much confidence,” he added.
“Looking forward to playing good tennis in this tournament.
“I beat top opponents during the Acapulco tournament, which means something good to myself and I’m very excited to keep playing at the same level as I did last week.
“If you want to win a title like this, you must play good tennis and beat many other good players, too, and that’s my biggest goal.
“So I need to go step-by-step, match-by-match and see how far can I go.”
