Roger Federer has taken another step towards returning to the top of the world rankings. The Swiss won the second round of the ATP-500 event in Rotterdam on Thursday against Philipp Kohlschreiber after a hard fight with 7:6 (8), 7:5.
Both players started concentrated in the match and didn’t allow any break chances for the opponent in their own serve games. Only at the score of 6:5 for Federer did the 36-year-old get a chance to remove Kohlschreiber’s serve, but the German resisted the set ball with a strong serve.
In the following tiebreak, Federer fell behind and had to fight off two set points, but was able to win the first round after 56 minutes of intensive play.
The second movement produced a similar picture as before. Both players performed their service without any problems. It was only Kohlschreiber who found himself in the third game with three break points against himself. But as is so often the case on this day, however, he let heavy impacts follow in pressure situations.
Only when everything looked like the second tiebreak of the match, Kohlschreiber weakened. At a score of 5:5, the 34-year-old made his second double error in the game at breakball and lost his serve. Afterwards, Federer, who beat eleven aces, served his way to the quarter-finals after an hour and 44 minutes. As in the previous twelve duels with Federer, Kohlschreiber was the loser.
Federer now only needs one more win to reach the top of the world rankings. The opponent for the match with great consequences will be determined in the last match of the evening in the purely Dutch duel between Robin Haase and surprise man Tallon Griekspoor.
Already in the afternoon Andrey Rublev won against Damir Dzumhur 6:4,7:6 (4). In the quarter-finals, the Russian will now face Grigor Dimitrov, who won against Filip Krajinovic in two tight sets 7:6 (4) and 7:5.