Top seed Roger Federer on Thursday beat Germany’s Mischa Zverev 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 to advance to the last eight of the Gerry Weber Open as the 18-time Grand Slam champion sharpens his grass-court game ahead of Wimbledon.
Federer, who skipped the entire clay-court season after winning the Australian Open and claiming titles at Indian Wells and Miami this year, is next to play defending champion Florian Mayer, who beat Frenchman Lucas Pouille in three sets.
The Swiss, who lost his first comeback match in Stuttgart last week, is still lacking some game sharpness and squandered three set points at 5-4 in the first set of an entertaining serve-and-volley encounter.
He persisted and carved out two more, winning the tiebreak by whipping a crosscourt backhand winner on his fourth set point.
Zverev’s erratic first serve was a liability and Federer pounced again at 4-4 in the second set to break the German, whose younger brother Alexander is through to the quarter-finals, and served out the match.
World No. 9 Kei Nishikori’s own Wimbledon preparations suffered a setback when he was forced to retire injured for the third straight time at this tournament.
The third seed needed to take a medical time-out against Karen Khachanov to treat a back injury before playing on for a few points and retiring with the Russian leading 3-2 in the first set.
Khachanov is now to play fellow Russian Andrey Rublev, who earlier beat Mikhail Youzhny.
AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS
AP, LONDON
The unheralded Australians who blew open the draw at the Aegon Championships with first-round wins over Andy Murray and Milos Raonic came back down to earth on Thursday.
Jordan Thompson, a last-minute injury replacement in the field, and Thanasi Kokkinakis, ranked No. 698, both lost in the second round, but will take home lasting memories from the Wimbledon warm-up.
Thompson, ranked No. 90, failed to follow up his huge upset of the top-ranked Murray in straight sets on Tuesday, losing to the US’ Sam Querrey 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3.
Kokkinakis, who dispatched Raonic — last year’s runner-up at Wimbledon and Queen’s — also in straight sets, was beaten by Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-2, 6-2.
Fourth-seeded Marin Cilic avoided becoming the latest high-profile player to depart early by beating Stefan Kozlov 6-0, 6-4 and is to play another American, Donald Young, in the last eight.
Feliciano Lopez was the last player through to the quarter-finals after beating Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
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