A week after registering a record sixth crown at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Federer embarked on his quest for a fifth title in Indian Wells. The Swiss extended his impressive 2014 record to 15-2, defeating Mathieu for the seventh time since they first met 11 years ago.
The champion in 2004-06 and 2012, Federer claimed his 43rd match win in Indian Wells and 284th at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 level, converting on three break point opportunities and firing nine aces to defeat Mathieu.
''It's important to win,'' he said. ''It's a lot different from Dubai. You have to force a bit more, but I'm satisfied. I enjoy the game in a totally different way than I did years ago," said Federer.
Roger opened the match with a break and was never under pressure on his own serve. Scoring another break to reach a 5-2 lead he easily booked the first set. The French qualifyer put up more of a fight in the second set, holding serve until 3-3, when Roger broke his serve. But serving for the match at 5-4, Roger was not able to hold serve and so things had to be decided in a tie-breaker. Our champ fell 1-3 behind at first, but eventually brought everything together to wrap up the match in two sets after 1h 31minutes of play.
Federer’s reward is a third round encounter with Dmitry Tursunov following the 31 year old’s 7-6(4), 6-4 triumph over Juan Monaco. Tursunov saved 10 of 12 break points faced to set up a fourth Head 2 Head meeting with Federer. The Russian trails 0-3.
Date: 9th March 2014, Source: ATP and RF Official
0 comments:
Post a Comment