HAMBURG: Roger Federer (pictured above) had few problems as he breezed into the quarter-finals of the Hamburg ATP tournament with a straight sets third-round win over Czech opponent Jan Hajek yesterday.
The Swiss ace, playing his second match since his second-round exit at Wimbledon last month, needed just over an hour to seal a 6-4, 6-3 win over the 29-year-old Hajek to reach the last eight.
“Wins like that do me good,” admitted the 31-year-old Federer, who faces Germany’s Florian Mayer in today’s quarter-final.
Federer squandered 10 of his 13 break points, including five match points in the eighth game of the second set, but prevailed in 72 minutes. Having brushed off his Wimbledon cobwebs by fighting back after losing the first set to Germany’s Daniel Brand in Wednesday’s second round, Federer fired down seven aces to Hajek’s two.
Second-seed Tommy Haas of Germany also booked his place in the last eight with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq.
The 35-year-old German is bidding to win his hometown title for the first time in 11 appearances - four of his 14 ATP World Tour titles have come on German soil.
In the quarter-finals Haas faces 12th-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini, who dismissed Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-4 in 90 minutes.
The 26-year-old Fognini won his first tour title in Stuttgart last week, where he beat Haas in the quarter-finals. “After his tournament success in Stuttgart, he’s currently playing the best tennis of his life,” Haas said of Fognini after the German was critical of his own performance against Berlocq. “I’ll have to be fully focused.” REUTERS
