Top-seeded and defending champion Roger Federer was scheduled to play his first match of the season on Thursday night against qualifier Tobias Kamke of Germany.
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Federer, who had a first round bye, took just 55 minutes to see off Kamke, playing in the main draw of an ATP tournament for the first time since April. Both players struggled to find rhythm in first set, but there were no breaks of serve, Ivan saved 3 and Milos 2 break points before tie break.
He said on atpworldtour.com: “I had the opportunity to play him a year ago and it was a different level for me today”. “Tomorrow is going to be tougher. I came to the net – I didn’t even know I could volley like that – so I was pleasantly surprised”. I am where I want to be. Grigor’s had a tough grind today, but he’s extremely match tough.
“Every match you win against a player like this is just confidence for myself, and step by step I’m achieving my goal this year”. “But it was good. So it’s a lot of good experience, and I’m looking forward to that”.
At Auckland, New Zealand, Julia Goerges reached her sixth WTA final and her first in four years when she beat qualifier Tamira Paszek 6-4, 6-2 in an ASB Classic semifinal between players on the comeback trail. Viktor had 4-2 advantage before Grigor finally started to play better, breaking rival for the first time in game 8 to leve the score at 4 all. And it has shown in his tennis-runner-up in 2014 and champion a year ago. “When I was warming up before the match I knew I was feeling great in all aspects of my game”.
“Fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber beat Madison Brengle 6-3, 6-0 to set up a meeting with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Andrea Petkovic had a 7-5, 6-4 win over Ekaterina Makarova to move into a quarterfinal against USA qualifier Samantha Crawford, who had an upset 7-5, 7-5 win over seventh-seeded Belinda Bencic”.
Crawford will play the victor of a Thursday night quarterfinal between Victoria Azarenka and Roberta Vinci.
Federer, after showing signs of fatigue in the second, took a quick break before the third, and then went on a roll to set up three match points in the ninth game.
“The third was close and thankfully I started to serve a little bit better”, said Federer, who has won 17 major singles titles. “I felt my composure was solid from the beginning to the end. Pretty happy with that”.
“We had two months off”, she said.
Wolfe lost her singles to Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3 and former No. 1-ranked Hewitt, who will retire after the Australian Open in two weeks, fell 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Alexandr Dogopolov to give Ukraine an insurmountable 2-0 lead.
The 21-year-old Canadian this week won her first match on tour since slipping in the locker room at the US Open in September.
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The young American said she wasn’t anxious about facing Azarenka.
