Roger Federer returned to competitive tennis for the first time since June with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 win over Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela in the second round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday night.
The third-ranked Federer allowed Chela back into the first set, before prevailing in the tiebreaker. He was not as generous in the second, which lasted 34 minutes.
Federer, seeking his third Rogers Cup title, was playing his first match since losing in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon to Tomas Berdych.
PHOTO: AFP
He had largely withdrawn from the sport after his early exit, going on vacation, seeing his ranking slip from to No. 3 and then hiring a coach.
“There’s many things I’d like to do, but I’m not going to say my career is incomplete if I don’t get to it,” Federer said. “I’d love to win another 10 Wimbledons, another five French Opens, an Olympic gold in London, a Davis Cup and whatever — you name it.”
Federer won the Canadian tournament in 2004, and then again two years later. He improved to 23 wins from 29 matches in his career in Canada.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I thought it was a good match, overall,” he said. “It’s always nice to come back after six weeks and get the win. I think that’s what counts the most tonight. It’s normal that you’re a bit rusty after six weeks.”
The tournament lost one big name on Tuesday when American Andy Roddick withdrew with an undisclosed illness.
After losing in straight sets in the third round at Washington last week, Roddick said he “didn’t feel right physically.”
Roddick dropped to No. 11 in this week’s ATP rankings, the first time since the rankings began in 1973 that there is no US man is in the top 10.
CONQUEROR
Roddick’s conqueror at Wimbledon, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun, beat 24-year-old Canadian wild card Pierre-Ludovic Duclos 6-4, 6-4 in their first-round clash. The world No. 340 from Sainte Foy in Quebec was playing in his first ATP singles event. Lu’s win earned him a second-round clash with 95th-ranked Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, who received a bye in the first round.
Ironically, Mathieu replaced Roddick in the draw. The 30-year-old Frenchman was a semi-finalist in Toronto in 2005.
Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych ousted Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes in their second-round showdown earlier on Tuesday.
“I know him quite well, what his style of the game is, and it’s always tough,” Berdych said.
“He’s playing a lot of slice, chip-and-charge and coming to the net, and sometimes really fast, coming in from the baseline. You don’t know what to expect,” the Czech said.
This has been Berdych’s best season so far on tour, reaching the French Open semi-finals and following that with a loss to Nadal in the Wimbledon final a month later. He said he would not trade either experience.
“These are the best moments,” he said. “If you have money, you can buy whatever you want, but these — the memories from the tennis — are really nice. This is the reason why you are doing this sport.” Berdych, ranked No. 7 on the ATP World Tour, has won five singles titles over his career, but none this year.
SAD
“I wouldn’t change it for anything,” he said. “I was really sad that it didn’t happen in Wimbledon, because there was really something special, that I’d never been in a Grand Slam final.”
In the other second-round match, fifth-seeded Robin Soderling survived a scare to emerge with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Ernests Gulbis.
In first-round matches, Argentina’s David Nalbandian scraped to a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory over 10th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, No. 9 Fernando Verdasco beat Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 and No. 15 Gael Monfils of France beat India’s Somdev Devvarman 7-6 (3), 6-3.
Serbia’s Viktor Troicki upset 11th-seeded Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6 (2).Additional reporting by staff writer
Manchester United on Tuesday confirmed Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season, tasking him with leading the Red Devils back into the UEFA Champions League. “Having the responsibility to lead Manchester United is an honor,” said Carrick, 44, who won 12 major trophies in his 12-year playing career at United. The former midfielder previously had an unbeaten three-game stint as caretaker boss at Old Trafford in 2021. Carrick then took on his first permanent managerial role at second-tier Middlesbrough in October 2022 and was sacked in June last year after the club finished 10th in the
James Harden on Friday scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle. The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams, they went to
Dallas Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg on Wednesday was ruled out for the second half of their 118-109 loss to the Denver Nuggets after the No. 1 pick sprained his left ankle in the first half. Flagg was called for a foul while defending against Peyton Watson and turned the ankle as he fell to the floor with 6 minutes, 1 second left in the second quarter. Flagg limped to the bench and continued to the locker room, but returned for the final 2 minutes, 35 seconds before the break. The 19-year-old did not come out for the second half before the announcement that
Yassine Bounou on Wednesday saved two penalties, while Youssef en-Nesyri netted the decisive spot-kick as hosts Morocco secured a 4-2 shoot-out victory over Nigeria following a 0-0 draw in a tense Africa Cup of Nations semi-final in Rabat. Morocco, seeking their first continental title in 50 years, are to face 2021 winners Senegal in Sunday’s decider in Rabat, while Nigeria take on Egypt in the third-place playoff tomorrow. The 120 minutes before the shoot-out had few clear-cut chances for either side, but it was Morocco who created more opportunities, although they were denied by some fine saves from Nigeria goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali. Nigeria
RSS