Federer saves 5 set points, sets up Zverev QF

Roger Federer saved five set points in the first set as he scrambled to a 7-6 (7), 6-4 win over 13th-seeded David Goffin on Thursday and advanced to the Shanghai Masters quarterfinals. It's his 87^th ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.

Second-seeded Federer holds a 10-1 winning record against Goffin, including all three matches they've played this year.

Despite the outcome, Federer didn't feel in control of their third round match.

"I never really felt like I had the upper hand over David today. I thought he did a really good job. He was so much better than at the US Open," said Federer, who beat Goffin 6-2, 6-2, 6-0 in New York.

"It was really him that was able to, I don't want to say dictate play, but I think he was very clear in his shot selection, when to do what also in terms of the scoreline. I thought he took really a lot of good decisions, and he was super fast on his feet today, which I think made it really hard for me to get my freebies and winners off the baseline, because he was getting to all of them," Federer said.

"It was a really tough match today. I think that first set maybe ended up being key."

Goffin had the right plan against the 38-year-old Swiss, charging forward and playing aggressively. The Belgian had beaten Federer only once in their 10 meetings, at the 2017 ATP Finals. But after he erased a set point at 4-5 on his serve, Goffin broke Federer and had the set on his racquet, serving at 6-5.

Two missed forehands and a double fault, though, saw three set points come and go in the 12^th game. In the tie-break, Goffin had a set point as Federer served at 5/6, but the Swiss erased it with a laser inside-out forehand. Goffin saw another set point on his serve, at 7/6, but a backhand wide kept Federer in it, and the two-time Shanghai champion clinched his second set point.

Goffin rebounded in the second set, but Federer broke in the seventh game when Goffin netted a forehand approach.

The Swiss will next meet German Alexander Zverev, who beat Russian Andrey Rublev 6-0, 7-6 (4). Federer and Zverev last faced off in the semi-finals of the 2018 ATP Finals, which Zverev won en route to the biggest title of his career.

Date: 10 October 2019, Source: AP and ATP