The Swiss, a four-times finalist in Rome, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery after this year’s Australian Open and was sidelined for 10 weeks before returning at the Monte Carlo Masters in April.
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Roger Federer is coming off a straight sets win over Alexander Zverev that took 21 games to decide. Thiem has only improved since then and he owns more match wins in 2016 than everyone except Novak Djokovic.
Roger Federer has hinted he may withdraw from the Rome Masters despite securing a second-round victory over Alexander Zverev.
He says it was a calculated risk and it’s a big day and a huge step in the right direction.
Vinci stopped the rot after seven games and the second set was much more of a battle as a boisterous home crowd attempted to unsettle Konta, but the 24-year-old held her nerve superbly to serve out the victory after 73 minutes.
Zverev became one of the youngest players to ever win an ATP Challenger Tour title when he claimed the Sparkassen Open in Braunschweig two years ago and won the Australian Open Juniors title the same year.
“I was expecting to lose in straight sets today”. “I played cautious, and I only decided after the warm-up that I was actually going to play”.
Seeking his first title here, Federer is playing at the Foro Italico sports complex for the 16th time.
The world No.2 broke Zverev for a 4-2 lead in the 1st set.
The match, lasting 89 minutes, was the first for the 34-year-old Swiss since losing a Monte Carlo quarter-final to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga almost a month ago. “(I) hope I’ll play”. “It’s just unfortunate that I can’t play my best tennis”.
That was as good as it got for Zverev, though, as Federer turned on the style from the baseline, his German opponent faltering at crucial moments on his debut at the tournament.
Top seed Djokovic and No. 2 Murray produced no-drama victories, with the Serb beating France’s Stephane Robert 7-5, 7-5 while the Scot put out Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-3.
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Eugenie Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up, beat the second-seeded Kerber 6-1, 5-7, 7-5; Irina-Camelia Begu, ranked 35th, defeated Azarenka 6-3, 6-2; and last year’s semifinalist Daria Gavrilova eliminated Halep 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in a match that was temporarily interrupted by rain.
