Roger Federer says he trusts he has not botched his last opportunity to play Rafael Nadal after the Spaniard pulled back from their Indian Wells semi-last with correct knee damage.
Second seed Nadal got treatment to the knee amid his quarter-last win over Karen Khachanov on Friday.
The Spaniard had a short practice session on Saturday before pulling back.
"It's extreme for me to acknowledge every one of these things that I'm experiencing in my profession," Nadal said.
Swiss Federer got a walkover to Sunday's conclusive, where he will confront Dominic Thiem after the Austrian beat Canada's Milos Raonic 7-6 (7-3) 6-7 (3-7) 6-4.
"I am clearly eager to be in the finals, however not thusly," Federer, 37, said.
"We've had such huge numbers of epic fights and I know since each one we have could be our last. Was this our last possibility? I would like to think not."
Youngster Andreescu achieves Indian Wells last
Nadal stated: "I will likely be sound however many weeks as could be expected under the circumstances to continue playing and at the most elevated amount conceivable.
"Some of the time I feel miserable on the grounds that I'm in a hindrance to every one of my rivals."
The 32-year-old additionally pulled back from one week from now's Masters 1000 occasion in Miami with the damage.
Nadal and Federer, who have 37 Grand Slam titles between them, have not played each other since 2017.
Nadal drives the straight on 23-15 however Federer has won their previous five matches.
'The things I can't control, I can't control'
Nadal finished only one hard-court competition in 2018 - the Rogers Cup in Canada, which he won - in view of his damage battles.
He was compelled to resign from his Australian Open quarter-last in January 2018 and again amid the semi-finals of the US Open.
Nadal achieved the last of the current year's Australian Open, where he was beaten in straight sets by Novak Djokovic.
"I heated up today and I felt that my knee was bad to contend at the dimension I required," the 32-year-old said.
"I'm simply going to continue doing the things that function admirably for me and tolerating that occasionally these issues can occur.
"Every one of the things that are in my grasp, I am progressing admirably. The things that I can't control, I can't control."
The Spaniard included he was sure he would be fit for the Monte Carlo Masters in April, which is one of the principal occasions of the earth court season.
It would have been the 39th time Nadal and Federer had played each other and the fourth time in Indian Wells.
They last met in the last of the Shanghai Masters two years prior, which Federer won 6-4 6-3.
Addressing columnists after his 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-2) triumph over Russia's Khachanov, Nadal said he "couldn't ensure how I'm going to get up tomorrow".
"I want to play on hard, yet likely my body doesn't love it that much," he included.
"My inclination is there are a ton of players that adoration to play on hard, genuine, yet their bodies don't love to play on hard, either."
Investigation
Russell Fuller, BBC Radio 5 Live tennis reporter
"I'm simply going to continue onward," Nadal said after this most recent hard-court difficulty.
He state he will keep on modifying his logbook - however hard-court competitions will stay on the timetable. In all actuality, he has minimal decision, with half of the Grand Slams challenged on that surface.
Nadal had implied before in the week that he may skip Miami in any case, and maybe his interest in the hard-court occasions which pursue the US Open will be examined considerably more intently.
He frequently needs to miss them at any rate. In 17 hard-court occasions from the beginning of 2018, Nadal has pulled back from 11, resigned from three and finished only three.
