Fri, Nov 05, 2010 page19

• Federer seals runaway Basel win

  AS GOOD AS IT GETS: While the world No. 2 was cautious to not come across as arrogant, he was surprised by the smooth run and hoped to keep up the good form

  • AFP, BASEL, SWITERLAND
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  Roger Federer turned in a second consecutive dream performance on Wednesday to give his home fans more satisfaction as he rolled Serb Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-4 at the Swiss Indoors.

  The one-hour effort surprised even the in-form top seed.

  “That’s two perfect matches in a row,” said the Swiss, equally ruthless in the first round on Monday. “How much better can it get?”

  

  Switzerland’s Roger Federer, left, shakes hands with Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, right, on Wednesday after winning their round of 16 match at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.

  PHOTO: EPA

  “I played well, served well and had hardly any errors. This is about as good as it gets. If I can keep it like this for the whole event, that would be amazing,” he said.

  Federer is now into the quarter-finals as he bids to seize back the title he lost to Novak Djokovic a year ago, following a three-year trophy run at the St Jakobshalle, where he got his start in the sport as a teenage ballboy.

  However, the world No. 2 does not want to risk over-confidence either.

  “I don’t want to get used to this, that could be a danger,” he said. “Beating Janko [who took him to five sets in their last match at the 2008 Australian Open] is a good win. He’s on a Davis Cup finals team after all. I’m happy to get this win, but nothing is guaranteed.”

  Federer got the job done in exactly one hour, leaving him plenty of time to cross the road and find his VIP seat at the Champions League fixture between his club Basel and visiting Italian side Roma.

  Fourth seed Andy Roddick was planning on dining in at his central city hotel after passing up on the chance to attend the soccer match.

  Roddick marked his return to tennis after injuring his knee a fortnight ago in Shanghai with a 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) defeat of compatriot Sam Querrey to reach the second round.

  The American, who last played in Basel in a 2003 semi-final, resumed the hunt for a place in the eight-man ATP season final, where three spots remain open.

  Roddick hammered his trademark aces with abandon, totting up 16 in just over 90 minutes of battle.

  Querrey, another big hitter, managed 16, but put a backhand into the net on Roddick’s first match point to make an early exit on his debut appearance.

  “My injury from Asia felt fine,” Roddick said. “After being sick [with glandular fever] in the summer and then the Shanghai injury, it’s good to play a solid match.”

  “There is always that element of not knowing what to expect. Playing Sam is tough, we had a high level, and the tie-breaker was not easy. It was a really good match for me,” he said.

  In other first-round matches, veteran Czech Radek Stepanek beat Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), while Finn Jarkko Niemimen, a losing finalist against Federer in 2007, defeated German Daniel Brands 6-3, 6-2 in round one.

  Paul-Henri Mathieu put in a bid for inclusion on the French Davis Cup finals team to face Serbia with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over recent Stockholm finalist Florian Mayer of Germany.

  Dutchman Robin Haase joined Federer in the last eight as he beat the day’s second American, sending out eighth seed John Isner 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.

  ? VALENCIA OPEN 500

  AFP, VALENCIA, SPAIN

  Defending champion Andy Murray crashed out of the Valencia Open 500 with Argentine Juan Monaco taking advantage of his disappointing display to go through to the quarter-finals 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 on Wednesday.

  The Scot, who beat Feliciano Lopez in the last round, took on 12th seed Monaco after winning his last six matches without dropping a set.

  They had played three times before and Murray had won twice, both occasions on hard court, the last being just a few weeks ago in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai where Murray went on to win against Roger Federer in the final.

  It was his second ATP title this season after he retained his Toronto crown in August.

  Murray struggled from the start though against Monaco, a former top 20 ranked player, and lost the first eight points as he went two games down.

  Monaco took the game to the world No. 4 and playing excellent tennis he broke again to win the first set 6-2.

  Murray had only managed to get 48 percent of his first serves in, but rallied in the second set after initially losing his serve again, to win four games on the trot and level the match.

  The initiative was with Murray, but he returned to commit the same unforced errors and saw his serve broken cheaply before bowing out 6-2.

  Frenchman Gael Monfils made light work of opponent Eduardo Schwank, who was out-classed 6-3, 6-3.

  The No. 14 in the world takes part in the competition fresh from victory in Montpellier last Sunday and having reached the final in Tokyo three weeks ago.

  It was always going to be a tough challenge for Schwank, 50 places further down in the world rankings and on a poor run having gone out in the first round of his last four competitions.

  Monfils cruised to a 4-1 lead in the first set superior in all facets of his play, but he notably dropped the tempo and Schwank broke back to trail 4-3. Monfils was never in trouble though and took the next two games.

  He went on to break Schwank again at the start of the second set and from there strolled to victory with his Argentine opponent committing almost double the number of unforced errors.

  Last year’s runner-up in Valencia, Mikhail Youzhny, and one of the favorites this time was to play qualifier Pablo Cuevas, but the semi-finalist at the US Open in September had to withdraw through injury and his place was taken by lucky loser Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

  Having been eliminated in the qualifiers, Ramos-Vinolas was understandably unprepared and appeared nervous as he quickly went three games down against Cuevas who instead of the ominous task of facing Youzhny, now found himself against a player ranked 128th.

  Ramos-Vinolas battled back, but lost the first set 6-3. In the second set a marathon fifth game proved crucial as Cuevas broke and went on to win 6-4.
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