Federer Moves Past Struff in Basel – After overcoming an early 1-3 deficit, Roger Federer reeled off five straight games to take the opening set, and then settled into a tight second set battle. The Swiss maestro would not go to three sets for a second match in a row though. The 37-year-old Swiss took advantage of a momentary lapse from 28-year-old Jan-Lennard Struff, who was forced into hitting errors while going for more on his groundstrokes. The German caved under pressure, hitting a costly double fault on break point. Little over a minute later, Federer served out the set and the match, extending his win streak in Basel to 17 matches with a 6-3 7-5 victory. He will face Gilles Simon next in Friday’s quarterfinals. The 8-time Swiss Indoors champion did continue to struggle on his serve. Federer served seven aces but also had five double faults for the match, putting just 53% of his first serves into play. He won 78% of points on his first serve and 64% of points on his second serve.
“I was ready for Struff to come out and swing. I didn’t know how aggressive he was going to play or how much serve and volley he was going to do. But unfortunately, I didn’t have the best first two service games. But he also played well, I must say. He connected well, he came out with a plan and it worked for him,” Federer said. “In the second set it was close throughout, but I think I was able to clean up my game a little bit… I’m obviously happy I got through today.”
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“I’m happy that I improved after a rocky, slow start today, to play well after that. I think the crowd was really into it. They were excited that I came back from being a break down,” Federer said. “I’m excited for the next round, so I’m actually quite happy how I’m playing right now.”