Roger Federer and Tommy Haas are through to the Hamburg quarterfinals thanks to straight-set victories on Thursday. Federer takes care of Jan Hajek while Haas stops Bastad champion Carlos Berlocq.
Roger Federer improved to 2-0 with a new Wilson stick when he defeated Jan Hajek 6-4, 6-3 in the third round of the German Tennis Championships on Thursday afternoon. Federer and his 98-inch racket face fired seven aces while double-faulting only once as the Swiss prevailed in one hour and 11 minutes.
The top seed dropped serve once in the first set in part due to 54 percent serving, but he more than made up for it with two breaks of his own. Federer’s second scalp of the Hajek delivery came at 5-4 to wrap up the opener in style. One break was enough for Federer in the second, because he lost a mere six points in five service games.
Joining the world No. 5 in the quarterfinals is 2012 runner-up Tommy Haas. The 35-year-old German halted the hot streak of Carlos Berlocq–who won his first career ATP title last weekend in Bastad–with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph. Haas struck seven aces and broke serve four times to advance in one hour and 16 minutes.
Perhaps fatigued from having played–and won–seven matches in the last 10 days, Berlocq got off to a slow start. In fact, the 46th-ranked Argentine trailed 6-2, 5-1 before mounting a brief charge. He held, broke at 2-5, then held again before his opponent finally served out the match in the 10th game of the second set.
Next up for Haas is an in-form Fabio Fognini, who upset the world No. 11 last week in Stuttgart en route to his first ATP title. While Haas seeks revenge, Federer awaits either Feliciano Lopez or Florian Mayer in the last eight on Friday.
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Impressive stuff from the goat.
We now know why he elected to play two claycourt tourney.
Major boost for Us open.
#his best slam
I thought it’s the grass his mastery, now it is hardcourt?
Mayer just broke the Fed’s serve three times in one set!
Don’t count that USO title just yet.
#WistfulThinking
third set time
so fed loses to delbonis in 2 sets… the racket change wont do any good…fed’s self belief must be very low right now…I am sure he believes he is inferior to all other members of the big 4 now…but he is not going to show it..
gotta be patient after a racket change. Nobody does well right away with a new one. Remember Djokovic lost R1 of his first tournament with a new racket to GULBIS.
vamosrafa,
Hey! Good to see you here. I took a break from tennis, but have been checking in now and then. I knew that Fed was playing in some smaller tournament. I heard about his racket change.
I agree with Ricky that it does take time to get used to a new racket. I remember last year when Rafa came out with a heavier racket and it took him some time to get used to it, but then he got great results.
I just think that losing again to some nobody is not going to help Fed. He has always been supremely confident, but the early loss at Wimbledon had to hurt and now another loss.
I agree…but that is not my point..I am saying that in my opinion the racket change is not going to bring any considerable difference
in that case it is a fair point.
anyway, it’s a bad loss for Federer but it’s also irrelevant. This clay swing is worthless and means nothing for anyone near the top of the sport playing. Federer just wants to get used to the racket before the hard courts.
Hi all. Been glued to the Tour de France for the past two weeks so only following tennis in a desultory way but managed to catch most of the Hamburg action yesterday. Bit of a shocker to see Fed go out like that to a complete outsider – racket change or not.