Yet another Milestone for Roger Federer
It seems as there is no stopping the Fedexpress as it rides its way into another elite club of tennis. After winning his third round match, Roger Federer has become the tenth player in the history books of tennis to win seven hundred matches. This feat has added yet another feather in his cap. With this victory, he marches on into the fourth round of the French Open. Federer’s victim this time around was a qualifier from Germany, Julian Reister, whom he overcame in three straight sets, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4. The joy from the win was there, but reaching yet another milestone in his illustrious career was just priceless.
This elite club has in it the likes of Boris Becker, Ilie Nastase, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas, and Jimmy Connors. It is led by one of tennis’s greats, Ivan Lendl, who has a whopping twelve hundred and forty two match wins to his name. That goal is a far cry for Federer at the moment, but it is enough that he has entered this elite club. Currently, Federer is thirteen points behind Boris Becker, who has an overall match-win count at seven hundred and thirteen. One thing also to note here is that Federer is the leading Grand Slam title winner of all time with sixteen titles to his name. That mantle had earlier belonged to Pete Sampras with fourteen grand slam titles, before Federer zoomed past him to reach the top.
The young German qualifier offered some resistance in the first eight games of the match, but once he was broken by Federer, the German could not catch up. Federer won the first set by six games to four. It may have been pressure or the intimidating opponent on the other side of the net that led the 165 ranked German to crumble. Reister could only manage to win four more games in the match before handing the match over to Federer on a silver platter in just ninety-three minutes. Federer’s greatness could be measured by the fact that he whipped thirty four winners throughout the match and did not even face the break point. It seems as though the German has still a lot more to learn, as he could only muster up ten winners in the whole match.
With this victory, Federer also completed his one hundred and fiftieth win on the red clay surface, which previously did not augur well for the Swiss. However, putting aside all his trepidations, this tennis ace managed to win the French Open title last year beating Robin Soderling and adding the solitary Grand Slam title that was missing from his legacy. Up till now, Federer has managed to clinch nine titles on the clay court surface.
Federer has been very happy and content with his form so far in the tournament. Even though he felt that he has not encountered any top player on his journey so far, but he has still managed to beat those players that could have potentially been dangerous on clay and whose power could not have been underestimated. He is fairly confident of his skills of mixing up shots and playing aggressively.
The next obstacle that he would need to conquer would be in the form of Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka, who is seeded number 20, could be a potential threat to Federer even though he has lost to him during the Olympics. But he seems to be in good form as he whipped forty-four winners to oust Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in just an hour and fifty two minutes. Federer may have the lead in the head-to-head between the two, but the last meeting was on the red dirt surface in Monte Carlo where Wawrinka prevailed. Federer has these statistics in mind as he knows he needs to play some good tennis to make his place in the quarterfinals of the French open.
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