Roger Federer rallies past Benoit Paire in the opening round battle – Australian Open 2013
Hot favourite Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer, took off his season-opening Grand Slam campaign in the most assertive manner on Tuesday. The second seeded veteran completely dismantled the French underdog, Benoit Paire, in the opening
round clash of 2013 Australian Open, settling the final score line at 6-2, 6-4, 6-1, in his favour. Federer took merely took 83 minutes to wrap up his first victory of 2013 season in straight sets.
It was already known that Paire wouldn’t stand a chance of winning against the world number two and it is what actually happened in the end. Federer didn’t give him any chances to come on top and kept hold of the momentum all the
way to victory. His mighty forehand worked perfectly for him and he kept pounding assertive winners down the line and across the court at will. The Swiss legend faced limited resistance from Paire in the second set but it didn’t worry him to the slightest
of bits and he went on to seal the third set with a breadstick.
Paire was led down by his own error-ridden game play. He coughed a total of eight double faults at the crucial moments of the match and committed 27 unforced errors to finish on the losing side in the end. The 46th ranked
Frenchman utterly failed to register a single break point in the entire matchup, frittering away three of the priceless chances he crafted. On the other hand, Federer’s 64 per cent precise first serve didn’t contain a single double fault and he secured 37
out of 44 points on it. The second seed Swiss had 12 break opportunities in the contest but only six conversions proved sufficient for him to post an authoritative score line.
Federer hasn’t participated in any of the season-opening tournaments being played in the recent two weeks and came to the coveted Melbourne Park without any match practice. However, his opening round win clearly depicted his true
form and intend of having a strong impact on the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. He will take on the winner of the opening round match between Dudi Sela and Nikolay Davydenko in his next encounter of the tournament.
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