Roger Federer breezed into the quarter-finals of the Hamburg claycourt tournament on Thursday and played down his decision to fly in the face of fashion by switching to a larger racket.
The Swiss top seed, playing his second match since his shock second-round exit at Wimbledon, needed just over an hour to seal a 6-4, 6-3 win over 29-year-old Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic.
The 31-year-old Federer, with his world ranking down at five, his lowest for a decade, is playing in Germany with a larger 98 square-inch frame (632cm2) — eight inches bigger than his previous rackets.
Photo: EPA
“I guess it’s to a degree some more getting use to, just to see how it reacts on every single shot,” Federer said.
“Clearly it reacts better to some shots, but it’s important not to think of it the whole time, not to talk about it all the time, but more just sort of go with it, fight for every point, have the right mindset, be optimistic about playing here now and wanting to achieve a good result and that’s what I’m doing,” he said.
Federer, who was due to face Germany’s Florian Mayer in yesterday’s quarter-finals, squandered 10 of his 13 break points against Hajek, including five match points in the eighth game of the second set, but prevailed in 72 minutes.
Having brushed off his Wimbledon cobwebs by fighting back after losing the first set to Germany’s Daniel Brand in Wednesday’s second round, Federer fired down seven aces to Hajek’s two.
Federer has a 31-4 event record in Hamburg, where he won the title in 2002, 2004, 20005 and 2007 and finished runner-up in 2008 to Rafael Nadal.
“I’m just still looking for the timing and the rhythm here, but the longer I stay in the tournament the more confident I am that I’m going to play better,” he said.
Second-seed Tommy Haas also booked his place in the last eight with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.
The 35-year-old German is bidding to win his hometown title for the first time in 11 appearances.
In the quarter-finals Haas was due to face 12th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini, who beat Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes.
The 26-year-old Fognini won his first tour title in Stuttgart last week, where he defeated Haas in the quarter-finals.
“After his tournament success in Stuttgart, he’s currently playing the best tennis of his life,” Haas said of Fognini after the German was critical of his own performance against Berlocq. “I’ll have to be fully focused.”
? CLARO OPEN COLOMBIA
AP, BOGOTA
Top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia advanced to the Claro Open Colombia quarter-finals on Thursday night, beating Belgium’s Ruben Bemelmans 6-4, 7-5.
Tipsarevic will face Colombia’s Alejandro Falla, who beat Matthew Ebden of Australia 7-6 (7/1) 6-1.
In the afternoon session, Italy’s Matteo Viola beat fourth-seeded Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-3, 7-5 to set up a match against Vasek Pospisil of Canada. Pospisil beat Australia’s James Duckworth 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB