Roger Federer clinches his spot in the World Tour Finals by beating Kevin Anderson in the Paris second round on Wednesday. Federer is joined in the last 16 by Rafael Nadal, who also advanced in straight sets.
(5) Roger Federer d. Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-4
Federer kicked off his BNP Paribas Masters campaign by dismissing Anderson in one hour and 22 minutes on Wednesday night. The fifth-seeded Swiss fired seven aces and no double-faults to go along with 23 winners and 22 errors. A slumping Anderson, who got a retirement from Mikhail Youzhny in the opening round, started slow and finished with 35 unforced errors.
The 6’8” South African rallied late with some punishing baseline play, but it was too little, too late. Although Federer dropped serve for the first time at 5-2 and trailed 15-40 at 5-4, he won the final four points to survive in straights. The 17-time Grand Slam champion converted his first match point when Anderson sent a backhand wide. Federer, who will face Philipp Kohlscheiber on Thursday, has now clinched a place in the World Tour Finals.
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(1) Rafael Nadal d. Marcel Granollers 7-5, 7-5
Nadal also won by twin scorelines, giving up five games in each of the two sets against Granollers. The world No. 1 held all 12 of his service games while saving one break point and he broke his fellow Spaniard at 5-5 in bot the first and second.
“I am happy about the victory today,” said Nadal, who will battle Jerzy Janowicz for a berth in the quarterfinals. “The victories on days when you are not playing well have much more value than the victories on days that you played well. (Granollers) did a lot of things well. He played short points. He went to the net a lot of times. I have to improve a lot for tomorrow. I’m going to try to play aggressively, play with more intensity than what I did today.”
Paris’ top seed is 1-0 lifetime against Janowicz, having prevailed 7-6(6), 6-4 this summer in Montreal.
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