Federer's awkward pre-match moment with opponent

Roger Federer and Jeremy Chardy shared a hilariously bizarre moment before their fourth round clash at Indian Wells.

Federer defeated Chardy 7-5 6-4 on Wednesday, to get within one win of making his best start to the year since 2006.

MORE HISTORY: Federer equals his best start to a year ever

But before the match began, the combatants were forced to share an awkward golf cart ride together.

As is customary at Indian Wells, players are driven to the court because of the abnormally large distance to the change rooms.

Federer was first into the cart, sitting in the back seat behind the driver, but despite there being a free seat next to him, Chardy opted to sit on the back of the cart facing away from his rival.

What resulted was Federer and Chardy sitting back-to-back, not speaking or making any eye contact as they made their way to court.

Will Ferrell, who was providing some hilarious commentary for Tennis Channel, summed up the awkward scenes.

"Jeremy Chardy is my favourite player. I have a Jeremy Chardy back tattoo,” Ferrell joked.

"That’s a typical Chardy move — he’ll psyche out his opponent by sitting in the back."

It's actually not the first time we've seen the strange scenes at Indian Wells, with Federer and Rafael Nadal sharing a similarly awkward moment at last year's tournament.

The 36-year-old Federer can equal his season-best start of 16-0 with a win in the quarter-finals, where he will meet Chung Hyeon of South Korea in a rematch of their Australian Open semi-final.

Federer advanced to the final in Melbourne when Chung retired in the second set trailing 6-1 5-2, and went on to win a five-set final against Marin Cilic.

Chung, seeded 23 here, beat 30th-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-1 6-3.

The World No.1 is chasing a record sixth title in the desert.

"Just playing really fast and good serve, good baseline," Chung said of Federer.

"He play everything good, so I'm just trying to enjoy on the court."

with AAP