Roger Federer was put to the test at his home Swiss Indoors on Wednesday, but conjured up a 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 7-5 defeat of Thomaz Bellucci to advance to the quarter-finals.
The champion at five of the last six editions needed all of his guile at the end to advance in just over three hours, with eight aces and two breaks of serve.
Federer has now won 31 of his last 32 matches in Basel, with his only loss coming against Novak Djokovic in the 2009 final.
The hometown star, who got his first exposure to the game as a ballboy at the venue, profited from a day off on Tuesday while Bellucci, a weekend Moscow finalist, had to go three sets the previous evening.
“It was a tough match, but a very enjoyable one,” said 17-time Grand Slam champion Federer, seeking his 77th title. “I maybe had some luck at the end. I also had a rest while he was playing yesterday after a long trip, but Thomaz played really well. I had to work for this one.”
Federer had a successful experiment with serve-and-volley tactics, mainly in the opening set, which he won in 30 minutes.
However, Bellucci took the second into a tiebreaker, with Federer fighting to save four set points before finally losing on the fifth. It took a deciding set for the world No. 1 to advance to his 66th season victory.
Second seed Juan Martin del Potro overcame a first-set back problem to make a winning 6-4, 6-1 start over Alejandro Falla.
The South American battle finished in just under 90 minutes, with Del Potro running away with the second set.
Del Potro is hunting for one of two remaining spots in the eight-man year-end championships in London from Nov. 5, standing provisional seventh, ahead of French back-injury victim Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and No. 9 Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who quit this week — as did Tsonga — with a physical problem at the Valencia event.
“Qualifying for London is very important for me,” Del Potro said. “I’m very excited to be so close, it’s a big goal, but I’ve not qualified yet. I need to win more matches. I hope to get there either this week or next.”
Frenchman Benoit Paire upset last week’s Moscow titleholder Andreas Seppi, the No. 5 seed, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Australian Marinko Matosevic put out Florian Mayer, the German seventh seed, 6-2, 6-3. Paul-Henri Mathieu of France beat Swiss-Finn Henri Laaksonen 6-2, 7-5.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set