Federer Gets Revenge, Ferrero Sends Warning in Hamburg

World No. 1 Roger Federer has showed no ill effects of being sidelined for the last few weeks with two swollen feet after registering his second beat-down in Hamburg, this time defeating Czech star Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-1.

Berdych of course defeated Federer on a windy day in Athens last fall that didn’t suit Federer’s game. Today in Hamburg was a different story as Fed was out for blood.

“I wanted to get rematch from the Olympics,” said Federer. “That always plays a role in such matches. You don’t just forget what happened in the previous matches against any player. And with him I have kind of a tough past: He ruined my Olympic dreams in Athens (laughs), so it’s nice.

“The conditions are totally different. It’s much slower,” Roger added. “The ball flew like crazy in Athens. I could never control it. Even though I had my chances, I didn’t take them. Today, I thought from the start that I was the better player from the baseline. I didn’t have that feeling in Athens. That’s a lot to do with the way I approached the match today. That was the difference.”

(Note to players: play Roger when the balls are flying. Good luck!)

Also advancing was former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero, who ended Marat Safin’s prodigious two-match win streak with a contentious 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory. More on that later.

“I’m playing good, I’m really good physically,” said Ferrero, who actually had to qualify for this event as his ranking was too low for direct entry. “I go to the balls really well. Today against Marat I hit the ball really good and I arrived to the balls really good. He didn’t do a lot of winners, which means that I am fast in the court right now. I feel I can win against anybody.”

Among other winners on the day included (5) Tim Henman (d. Rusedski), (10) Guillermo Coria (d. Coria), Gaston Gaudio (d. Costa), Christophe Rochus (d. (13) Ivan Ljubicic), Dominik Hrbaty (d. (16) Stepanek), and Richard Gasquet (d. Nicolas Massu).

For Thursday, some of the more interesting matches include (5)Henman vs Chela; (10) G Coria vs Ancic; Hrbaty vs Gasquet.; and, (1) Federer vs. (14) Robredo.