Federer races into third round

Five-time champion Roger Federer needed just one hour and 17 minutes to record a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over Israeli Dudi Sela on Thursday at Flushing Meadows. Federer hit 31 winners and broke Sela five times from 11 opportunities.

It was Federer's 225th match win in Grand Slam action, moving him ahead of Andre Agassi into second place for most Grand Slam wins in Open Era history. He now trails only Jimmy Connors with 233 match wins.

The 30-year-old Swiss is attempting to match two other Agassi feats this fortnight. He is looking to become the first player aged 30 or over to win a Grand Slam tournament since the American won the 2003 Australian Open, as well as tie Agassi's record mark of 46 hard-court titles.

Despite being tested by a difficult wind, Federer said that he never felt threatened by Sela. "Not much trouble on my serve, and from the baseline I also thought I had the upper hand," Federer said. "When it's like that, obviously it's tough for the opponent, but I just think I was superior today. It was a good match for me in breezy conditions.

"I did struggle a little bit with the rhythm just because it was quite breezy. On the one end, on the right hand side of the umpire's chair, you had sort of an uphill match, with strong winds against you. From the other side you barely touched the ball and it would fly on you. That's why you would make sometimes big errors of 10 feet and so forth."

Federer takes a 2-0 career lead into his next match with Croatian No. 27 seed Marin Cilic, who enjoyed a commanding 6-1, 6-0, 6-2 victory over upcoming Australian Bernard Tomic. The 22-year-old Cilic, who reached the US Open quarter-finals in 2009 (l. to del Potro), hit 34 winners to just nine from Tomic and benefitted from 34 unforced errors off his 18-year-old opponent, who made his breakthrough with a quarter-final run at Wimbledon.

Date: 02.09.2011, Source: ATP

1 comments:

  1. what's a great match today for Roger, keep up the good work and bring it to the next round as well!

    ReplyDelete