Federer, Murray get the job done at respective stomping grounds

Roger Federer and Andy Murray kicked off their grass-court seasons in style and picked up plenty of momentum in advance of Wimbledon by winning respective titles on Sunday. Federer triumphed over Andreas Seppi at the Gerry Weber Open and Murray got the best of Kevin Anderson at the AEGON Championships.

Federer lifted the Halle winner’s trophy for the eighth time in his career after defeating Seppi in one hour and 48 minutes. Seppi, who upset the Swiss at the Australian Open, had four break points–including two set points–in the opening set but could not convert. The lone service break of the day came in the final game with the Italian serving at 4-5, when Federer clinched victory with an overhead at the baseline.

“I think that I did very well here in the tiebreaks,” Federer reflected. “I served well which you have to on the grass. I was able to mix it up, so I created a good pattern going into the tiebreak. My opponent wouldn’t quite know where it’s going to go and if he knew where it was going to go it was going to be tough for him to defend. I think I did a really nice job this week on these situations.”

Murray’s championship match was even more routine, but his day was not. The third-ranked Scot had to start by playing his semifinal, in which he dismissed Viktor Troicki 6-3, 7-6(4). Murray then came back out and made quick 6-3, 6-4 work of Anderson to secure the title. The top seed faced zero break points over the course of one hour and four minutes.

“I served extremely well,” said Murray, who has now won at Queen’s Club four times. “I wasn’t expecting to have loads of opportunities with the way [Anderson] had been serving this week and the way the courts were playing…. I felt like once I got into the rallies I was doing really well, but it was obviously tough to do that some of the times. He served an extremely high percentage of first serves and was serving big. But it was a good performance.”

Federer-Seppi highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNCdY0o4r3k]

Murray-Anderson highlights:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5vHAYiMgdU]

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