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Roger Federer v Arnaud Clement third round preview

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Roger Federer v Arnaud Clement third round preview

Roger Federer has had an unusually tough start to his Wimbledon campaign this year, narrowly avoiding defeat in his first-round match against Alejandro Falla and then being pushed to four sets by world No. 153 Ilija Bozoljac in the round of 64.

“I think the first two matches have been tough,” Federer said, perhaps understating the situation a little considering Falla was at one stage a service game away from victory. “My opponents, I think they did play very well. Today was obviously very different. We hardly had any rallies, whereas in the first match it was played out on the baseline points really.”

Arnaud Clement will provide Federer with yet another contrasting style of play in his third-round match, with the French veteran likely to attempt to outhustle the top seed rather than out-hit or out-serve him. As Clement said on his way to the final of the Heineken Open in Auckland this year (which he lost to John Isner): “I don't have any big shot in my game, so I have to try and be focused every time."

It’s a focus that just two years ago took him to the quarter-finals at the All England Club, winning his way past the then rising star that was Marin Cilic (at the time ranked as the world No. 55) but not facing an opponent anywhere near the calibre of Federer as he turned in a career best performance at Wimbledon, which the 32-year-old has played every year since 1997.

The head-to-head record between the pair stands at 7-3 in Federer’s favour, but Clement has not won a match against Federer in their last six matches, spanning from the Davis Cup in 2001 to the Estoril Open in Portugal earlier this year.

Indeed, the last time the world No. 86 defeated Federer was in the third round of the 2001 Australian Open as he made a surprise run to the final, where Andre Agassi ultimately brought his dream run to an end.

Clement enters this match coming off two four set matches at Wimbledon, having come back from a set down first against Janko Tipsarevic and then against Australia’s Peter Luczak, but while he was able to hustle his way to victory in those two matches, it’s hard to see the Frenchman doing the same against the man who has won the title in SW19 six times previously.

Federer might even manage a straight-sets victory in this one.

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