Defending champion Roger Federer shrugged off his recent dip in form to cruise into the third round of the Madrid Masters on Tuesday, beating Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-2, 7-6 (4).
The top-seeded Federer broke serve straight away and then broke again to close out the first set. He missed two match points when 5-6 up in the second set before taking control of the second set tiebreaker to win in 1 hour, 21 minutes.
Federer is seeking to improve his game in Madrid. He lost his first clay-court match of the year at the Rome Masters before exiting the Estoril Open at the semifinal stage.
The Swiss has reached the final in three of the last four years and is hoping Madrid will galvanize his season as it did last year, when he went on to win the French Open and Wimbledon.
“I’m happy with the way I reacted after all that happened in the last few weeks and months,” Federer said. “The moment the match started, I felt great. I was hitting the ball fine and I think the center court here just feels right to me — I’ve never lost on it, so that gives me confidence and I think it showed today in my game.”
Federer will play either Stanislas Wawrinka or Julien Benneteau.
Fernando Verdasco lived up to his billing as home favorite by beating Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 7-6 (5), 6-3 in their first meeting on clay.
In a tight opening set, Verdasco struggled to handle Karlovic’s serve although the sixth seed looked altogether more comfortable with the return in the second.
“The tie-break in the first set boosted my confidence and allowed me to play more calmly in the second set, and in the end to break him,” Verdasco said.
The Spaniard says he dreams of winning in Madrid — this is his eighth straight year competing in the tournament. Last year he lost to Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals.
“It’s always a pleasure to play in my city and it makes me proud,” he said.
In the first round, 16th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci beat Pere Riba of Spain 7-6 (5), 6-1.
Wild card David Nalbandian, the champion in 2007, and his opponent Tomas Berdych both withdrew because of separate injuries before their match. The organizers did not specify the nature of the injuries.
Michael Russell and Mardy Fish, two players who narrowly failed to get through the qualifying phase, were drafted in as replacements. Fish won the match 6-2, 7-6 (1).
Juan Ignacio Chela, Eduardo Schwank, Philipp Petzschner Ernests Gulbis, Marcos Baghdatis, Stanislas Wawrinka, Victor Hanescu, John Isner, Mikhail Youzhny and Daniel Munoz-De La Nava also progressed to the second round.
On the women’s side, last year’s finalist Caroline Wozniacki was beaten 6-2, 6-3 in an upset by 26th-ranked Alona Bondarenko. The Ukrainian will play Li Na of China in the third round.
Wozniacki said she was still recovering from an ankle injury although she was confident of being fully fit for the French Open.
“When you’ve twisted your ankle a few times, as I have, you need your confidence back, especially on clay. It’s uneven, and you need to be confident that you really can go out there and slide really wide,” she said.
In another shock result, Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania beat sixth seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.
In other second-round matches, Patty Schnyder beat ninth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated 12th-seeded Marion Bartoli 6-2, 6-0.
Andrea Petkovic of Germany downed 14th-seeded Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (3), 6-3 on her debut in Madrid.
Eighth-seeded Samantha Stosur edged Italian Open Champion Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 7-6 (2), 6-4. The Australian has now won 13 of 14 matches on clay this season.
“I don’t think I could’ve asked for a much better preparation going into the French,” Stosur said.
“To get at least three matches here is great, so everything from here on is a bonus. If it ends up being a few more this week, then that’s great,” she said.
Nadia Petrova, seeded 16th, beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 7-5 in an all-Russian match.
Other winners were Shahar Peer, Lucie Safarova, Aravane Rezai, Alona Bondarenko, Li Na and Alexandra Dulgheru.
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