ATP: Federer in the sprint in lap two in Rotterdam

Roger Federer is still missing two victories to return to the tennis throne: The Swiss player beats Belgian Ruben Bemelmans in two sets in the first round of the ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Rotterdam and will meet Philipp Kohlscheiber on Thursday.

The 20-time Grand Slam winner only needed 47 minutes in the Netherlands for his never-at-risk move into the second round. Should Federer reach the semi-finals in Rotterdam, the four-time father of a family on Monday, at the age of 36, six months and eleven days, would be the oldest world number one in history.

Federer had no problems at all against Bemelmans on his own serve, won more than 90 percent of the points after his first serve. The Basel bidder acted as a backlash, with many variations and aggressiveness. Sentence one was over after 18 minutes of play.

Possible stumbling block on the way back to the top after more than five years is for Federer in the round of sixteen on Thursday the Augsburg Philipp Kohlschreiber, who had prevailed against the Russian Karen Khachanov on Tuesday. Against Kohlschreiber, Federer has a flawless 12:0 record. Nevertheless, the “Maestro” warned against him in the postgame interview: Kohlschreiber had sometimes been close to victory, for example at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle/Westphalia.

Here the single panel in Rotterdam