Federer eases into Halle quarters
Top seed Roger Federer enjoyed a comfortable workout as he opened his account at this week’s Gerry Weber Open in Halle with a straight-sets win over German wildcard Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.
Federer, a five-time winner of the Wimbledon warm-up event, eased to a 6-3 6-3 win in 67 minutes to get back to winning ways following his exit to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals of the French Open last week.
The Swiss world number three grew synonymous with the grass courts of Halle after posting four straight wins between 2003 and 2006, but he has not lifted the title here since 2008 and will hope the scene of so many past glories can spur him on to a first tournament win of 2013 this weekend.
Next up for Federer is another German wildcard, Mischa Zverev, who booked his place in the quarter-finals at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Mirza Basic.
Basic, ranked 240 in the world, raised eyebrows when he beat seventh seed Jerzy Janowicz on his ATP World Tour debut yesterday, but had no answer today as world number 156 Zverev came through for a 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 win.
Gael Monfils carried through the momentum from his first-round upset of Milos Raonic to see off Jan Hernych in straight sets.
The Frenchman defeated the Czech qualifier 6-2 6-3 in one hour 12 minutes to set up a meeting with either Tommy Haas or Ernests Gulbis in the last eight.
Fourth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan was a high-profile casualty as he crashed out at the hands of Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in three sets.
After being outplayed in the first set, Nishikori hit back to win the second on a tie-break, but Youzhny reasserted himself in the decider to take a 6-1 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 win.
Next up for Youzhny is a meeting with Philipp Kohlschreiber or Tobias Kamke.
