Roger Federer was pushed to three sets before beating Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the Swiss Indoors second round on Thursday.
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The Frenchman needs to win the Basel title and next week’s Paris Masters to have a chance to claim a place in the eight-man London showpiece.
Federer’s demolition in front of an appreciative home public at the event where the 17-time Grand Slam victor got his start in the game as a ball boy took only 54 minutes.
The eighth seed, Belgium’s David Goffin, overcame Italy’s Andreas Seppi 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and next meets the French qualifier Adrian Mannarino, who defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 4-6, 7-5, 7-6.
Young, the world number 49, goes on to face 29th-ranked compatriot Jack Sock who withstood 14 aces from fellow American and sixth seed John Isner’s racquet in a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win. There was also a 6-3, 6-4 win for Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, over Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky, which secured a round of 16 match-up with third seed Rafael Nadal. That was the goal.
Federer said victory was the only solution after he lost in an opening match this month in Shanghai as defending champion.
“I’m very pleased for a first-round win, especially after Shanghai. To come out and play positive tennis was good fun today”. The top seed Swiss leads their head-to-head series 2-0. “This was a very good start for me, an enjoyable match”.
The Swiss said that although he had beaten Kohlschreiber a lot, it was always hard against the German who is a tough opponent.
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“The next match will be a bigger challenge and a different challenge against Kohlschreiber”. He’s got different weapons that Kukushkin.
