Roger Federer continued his unbeaten streak at the Swiss Open extending it to 17th consecutive victory with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Jan-Lennard Struff to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.
An eight-time champion at his home court and a top seed, Federer is unbeaten here since 2013 and will next face Giles Simon of France, who beat Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/0).
But despite the win, the 37-year-old did not have a great start and had to bounce back 3-0 down in the opening set. He then surged to 5-3 before sealing the first game in just 27 minutes.
“I didn’t really get into the game. It’s been a long time since I’ve played a match without being broken. I have to improve in the next round,” said Federer as quoted by AFP.
The second set continued on a serve point basis until a fifth double-fault from Struff helped Federer move 6-5 ahead. Federer then served out the final set to claim a victory.
“It was a lot of rocky start, I had to clean up my game, I’m happy about that,” he said, reports the news agency.
He further added, “There were a lot of quick points – one or two shots max. There was no rhythm, it was a sprint on the majority of points. I did a little better than him I guess, that was the goal for today.”
Meanwhile, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Peter Gojowczyk 6-3, 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal battle with Daniil Medvedev, who defeated Italy’s Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in the second round match.
Second seed Alexander Zverev beat the 174th ranked Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-4 to qualify for the second round. He will next face eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who overcame Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-3 to advance.
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