Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Federer clambers into Kooyong final
Source: Agencies |
January 15, 2009, Thursday
|
Online Edition
Online Edition
ROGER Federer battled his way into the Kooyong Classic final after a tight 6-3 3-6 7-6 victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco today.
The world number two, who missed last year's eight-man invitational tournament with glandular fever, will meet fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka or Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in Saturday's final.
Wawrinka and Gonzalez play tomorrow.
Thirteen-times grand slam tournament winner Federer eased through the opening set before Verdasco fought back to win the second.
The decider went to a tiebreak, which Federer sealed with an ace after two hours, 14 minutes, although the Swiss said he would quite happily have played for longer.
"It's good to be out there and get used to the court," Federer told reporters. "Long matches don't bother me at this stage. If I was practicing I'd be practicing for two to three hours anyway.
"Either way I will be playing enough tennis this week. But it is good to be out on the match court."
Federer won the first five games of the match before Verdasco found his range.
The second set was much tighter, staying on serve until the eighth game, when Federer blew a 40-0 lead to hand the Spaniard the opportunity to serve for the set, which he duly took.
The final set was a tense battle with both holding serve, though Verdasco had two break points in the seventh game that he failed to convert and the match went to a tiebreak.
Federer jumped out to a 6-2 lead and was serving for the match before his left-handed opponent rattled off three successive points, but Federer was not to be denied.
In other matches, 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis found some form to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 6-4 while while Croatia's Marin Cilic beat Carlos Moya 6-3 7-6.
All had already been eliminated from contention for the title in the progression-relegation tournament after they lost their first-round matches yesterday.
The world number two, who missed last year's eight-man invitational tournament with glandular fever, will meet fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka or Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in Saturday's final.
Wawrinka and Gonzalez play tomorrow.
Thirteen-times grand slam tournament winner Federer eased through the opening set before Verdasco fought back to win the second.
The decider went to a tiebreak, which Federer sealed with an ace after two hours, 14 minutes, although the Swiss said he would quite happily have played for longer.
"It's good to be out there and get used to the court," Federer told reporters. "Long matches don't bother me at this stage. If I was practicing I'd be practicing for two to three hours anyway.
"Either way I will be playing enough tennis this week. But it is good to be out on the match court."
Federer won the first five games of the match before Verdasco found his range.
The second set was much tighter, staying on serve until the eighth game, when Federer blew a 40-0 lead to hand the Spaniard the opportunity to serve for the set, which he duly took.
The final set was a tense battle with both holding serve, though Verdasco had two break points in the seventh game that he failed to convert and the match went to a tiebreak.
Federer jumped out to a 6-2 lead and was serving for the match before his left-handed opponent rattled off three successive points, but Federer was not to be denied.
In other matches, 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis found some form to beat Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 6-4 while while Croatia's Marin Cilic beat Carlos Moya 6-3 7-6.
All had already been eliminated from contention for the title in the progression-relegation tournament after they lost their first-round matches yesterday.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
