It often takes Roger Federer a match or two to sink his teeth fully into a tournament. This Miami Open appears to be no exception.
Federer predictably raised his level in his second Miami match on Monday afternoon, taking care of Filip Krajinovic 7-5, 6-3 to reach round four of this Masters 1000 event. The 37-year-old struck 14 aces and served at 73 percent while getting the job done in one hour and 30 minutes. He had previously scraped past Radu Albot 4-6, 6-5, 6-3, requiring two hours and eight minutes to survive his opener.
“I thought it was a high intense match in the first 10 games,” Federer said after beating Krajinovic. “Then I was able to pull away. I had a good 20-minute stretch where I was really able to stretch the lead, and that was key today.”
Up next for the Swiss is Daniil Medvedev, who outlasted Reilly Opelka 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-6(0). Interestingly (albeit not shockingly), Medvedev and Opelka have now faced each other twice in their careers and both matches have ended in final-set tiebreakers(8-6 at the 2017 Washington, D.C. tournament and 7-0 this time around, both in the Russian’s favor).
“He plays from far back and can play in, as well, so there is some variety there,” Federer said of Medvedev. “But other than that, he plays very flat. He’s clever how he plays the court, because he can play it up and down and he’s unusual when he plays from back. He plays more flat than actually loopy like what Thiem does or Rafa or Stan does. He plays it more flat from the back. It’s a bit of a different approach.
“Thankfully I played him last year twice, in Basel and Shanghai. I’m looking forward to the game. But I’m very impressed about his progress; I must say the last year [was] unbelievable for him. He won three tournaments in the last seven months or so; very impressive.”
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nice one, Fed
Fed in straight.
Fed warms up for RG 🙂