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Federer’s ninth Halle title bid off to winning start

The world number three, who dropped out of last month’s French Open, had little trouble swatting aside Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, 6-3, 7-5, and next faces Belgium’s David Goffin.

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Zverev, 19, was a year old when 17-time grand slam victor Federer made his debut on the ATP Tour. In the second set, Tomic lost his serve in game 5 and that was all that Milos needed until the end of the match.

South Africa-born Edmund is ranked 85 and the 21-year-old’s reward for shocking the eighth seed is a second-round meeting with France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu, who defeated British wildcard Daniel Evans 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.

He now has Halle’s second all-German final to look forward to on Sunday against Florian Mayer, a surprise 6-3 6-4 victor over another young gun, Austrian third seed Dominic Thiem.

Watched by his coach Ivan Lendl, a two-time champion at Queen’s Club, Murray forced a forehand error to break for 2-1, fought off four break points in the next game and broke at love to take the opening set. Kohlschreiber had 5 aces and 4 break points in their one hour and thirty-seven minute match.

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Raonic will take on Murray hoping to win his first ever grass-court title and his second ATP title of 2016 after his victory in Brisbane in January.

Just over a week before the start of Wimbledon, it was the second semi-final defeat in a row on grass for the world number three after Thiem beat him in Stuttgart last week.

The second set saw the pair once tied at 3-3.

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“I wish I could have played maybe a bit better at times but I must put it down to my opponent keeping me off balance as well. I’m playing well, but he’s the best player ever on this surface”, admitted 19-year-old Zverev after the surprise win. “Marcos should have won that but ended up losing it, the momentum goes Zverev’s way, one break and the match is over”, Federer said afterwards. He holds a 4-0 record against the 11th-ranked Goffin, including a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 victory at the Australian Open earlier this season.

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