Federer Cruises In Battle Of Veterans

Roger Federer wasted no time in booking his spot in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday evening. In a battle of veteran players on the ATP World Tour, 35-year-old Federer raced past 36-year-old Stephane Robert 6-2, 6-1 in just 51 minutes.

“Very happy. The knee is a thing of the past, which is great. I don’t even have to think or talk about it. So I thought the match went really well,” said Federer. “I’m very pleased with how it went. And moving on to the next round, it’s going to be a different matchup, so I’ve got to adjust again.”

Despite the scoreline, Federer was full of praise for Robert playing some of the best tennis of his career at age 36. 

“I admire those guys who make the breakthrough later on and find a way and not lose love for the game early,” said Federer. “It’s nice to see him do well now and beginning to play against great players on the big courts. That’s been so motivational for those guys to keep going. All of a sudden, age just becomes a number.”

The Swiss star was in fine form, winning 71 per cent of his service points and converting all five of his break point chances. Victory takes Federer to a 53-11 mark at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, where he has lifted the trophy four times, most recently in 2014 (d. Djokovic).

After being sidelined for the second half of the 2016 season, Federer made a remarkable comeback at the start of this year, beating Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal in back-to-back five-set tussles to clinch his 18th Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open.

There was a surprise for Federer last week, though, in his second tour-level tournament of the year in Dubai, where he was upset by Evgeny Donskoy in the second round. The Basel native looks to bounce back this week, but finds himself in the toughest quarter of the draw, alongside Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Federer goes on to face 24^th seed Steve Johnson, who edged Kevin Anderson 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) in two hours and 14 minutes. Federer leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Johnson 1-0, defeating the American in straight-sets last year at Wimbledon.

Two more Americans were in action on Sunday evening. #NextGenATP player Taylor Fritz recorded the biggest win of his young career as he upset sixth seed Marin Cilic 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 18 minutes.

Cilic led 6-4, 3-1, but Fritz fought back to level the match. The 19-year-old American could not close it out as he served for the match at 5-3 in the decider, but regrouped to break Cilic in the next game, leaving the court victorious as the crowd chanted his name.

“It was amazing,” Fritz said of his first win over a Top 10 player. “Just the whole experience with the crowd, how I came back in the match, it’s just, words can’t describe it, really.

“I thought the main thing today was how I returned serve. I thought I returned much better than normal.

“I don’t think it’s the strongest parts of my game. I thought I did a really good job of returning one of the best servers in the game throughout that match. Also, I thought I did a pretty good job of competing and kind of just sticking in the match and staying solid.”

Fritz, a native of Rancho Santa Fe, goes on to face Malek Jaziri as he bids to post his best run at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament. 

Jack Sock recovered from a second-set disaster to defeat Swiss qualifier Henri Laaksonen 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 in one hour and 40 minutes. The Nebraska native broke decisively in the ninth game of the decider as he set a third-round clash with Grigor Dimitrov.

 Watch Full Match Replays

Kontinen/Peers Extend Masters 1000 Win Streak

Henri Kontinen and John Peers extended their dominant run in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, downing Fabrice Martin and Lucas Pouille 7-6(4), 6-4 at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday. The Finnish-Aussie tandem have now won six straight matches at the Masters 1000 level, following their maiden triumph in Paris last year. 

Overall, Kontinen and Peers are an impressive 19-2 since late October, having also lifted the trophy at the ATP Finals to cap 2016 and the Australian Open to open 2017. The third seeds will face German brothers Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev for a spot in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram set a meeting with Rafael Nadal and Bernard Tomic after holding off Benoit Paire and Michael Venus 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 in one hour and 17 minutes. Runners-up a year ago in Miami, Klaasen and Ram converted two of four break chances.

The third doubles match of the day ended in a brisk 58 minutes, as Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo moved past Paolo Lorenzi and Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2, 6-1.