Swiss tennis star Roger Federer won his first clay match of the season Wednesday at the Estoril Open. Federer needed just 84 minutes to sweep aside Bjorn Phau 6-3, 6-4 in the second round. ADHEREL
“First matches are never easy,” said Federer who had a bye in the first round. “I didn’t get a chance to play on Centre Court, but I got off to a good start and didn’t have any hiccups on serve. After I won the first set, I began to relax.”
Federer is six weeks shy of break Pete Sampras’ all-time record of 286 weeks at No. 1 in the ATP Rankings. If Federer remains at No. 1 he will tie Sampras on 7 June and break the milestone the following week. However Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic could still end the French Open ahead of Federer.
Federer will now meet Arnaud Clement in the quarterfinals on Friday.
As for Djokovic, he’ll be in action Thursday at his own event, the Belgrade Serbian Open.
The World No. 2 will begin his title defense against Italian Fabio Fognini. The top-seeded Djokovic defeated Fognini in straight sets in their only previous meeting last October in Shanghai. Djokovic enters with a 20-6 match record on the season, including 7-2 on clay. Fognini snapped a five-match losing streak with his first round win here but he is 0-8 lifetime against Top 10 opponents.
And Munich tomorrow features four second round matches with top seed Marin, No. 4 Philipp Kohlschreiber, No. 5 Marcos Baghdatis and No. 6 Nicolas Almagro in action.
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