Federer, Nadal sweep through opening round matches in Wimbledon
FEDERER AND NADAL KEEP THEIR COOL TO RACE INTO SECOND ROUND
I was happy I played aggressive. I was always going to miss playing that way a little bit but also he hung around. He changed up his game a little bit which made it a little bit more difficult so it was interesting for me.”
Roger Federer
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Seven-time Wimbledon champion
Seven-time champion Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the 2008 and 2010 winner, raced into the Wimbledon second round yesterday as the tournament sweltered in near record-breaking heat.
Second seeded Federer, bidding to become the first man to win eight Wimbledon titles and take his majors tally to 18, enjoyed a 67-minute 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win over Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, the world number 88 he beat at the French Open this year.
Federer will face Sam Querrey of the United States for a place in the last 32. Andy Murray later defied sweltering temperatures to kick off his bid for a second title with a comfortable 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
Murray avoided being dragged into a draining battle in the Centre Court sunshine, winning in two hours and 12 minutes to book a second round meeting with Robin Haase or Alejandro Falla. Nadal, defeated in the second, first and fourth rounds in the last three years, reached the second round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Thomaz Bellucci, his fifth win in five meetings against the 42nd-ranked Brazilian.
Tenth-seeded Nadal, his lowest ranking for a decade, faces Germany’s Dustin Brown for a place in the last 32.
Nadal, who lives in sun-kissed Mallorca, said he would be happy to see the sun keep shining. “In Australia it can be much, much worse so it’s no comparison but actually it’s beautiful,” said the Spaniard. “When you have this weather here in Wimbledon it’s probably one of the best places in the world.” Through his eightyear career Bellucci had played 306 matches, exactly split between victories and defeats, but it has always been one-way traffic against Nadal.
The two had met five times previously and the nearest the Brazilian came to taking a set was when he forced a tiebreak — which he lost to love - during his first-round defeat at Wimbledon three years ago.
Nadal had warmed up for this year’s tournament by winning on the grass of Stuttgart, though he went out in the first round at Queens. Bellucci has been allergic to grass for four years, failing to win a single match on the surface since 2011.
Keen contest
Nadal initially struggled to calibrate his forehand and was wayward with his serving but he eventually settled and began smashing Bellucci into submission with his heavyweight backhand. The Brazilian must have known it was not to be his day when, fighting to stay in the first set, he allowed an under-hit Nadal lob to bounce and planted his smash into the net from two metres.
The crowd gasped in sympathy and duly accorded him a very British ovation when he responded to the gaffe with an ace on his next serve.
It was all a mere diversion, however, as Nadal warmed to his task, with the full repertoire of grunting, shorts-fiddling, headband-adjusting and hair-stroking ticks on display.
The match fell into a pattern of Bellucci holding his own early in the rallies before finding himself stretched and eventually beaten by Nadal’s superior power and accuracy.
French 13th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was probably wishing for a few clouds after he spent more than four hours to see off Luxemburg’s Gilles Muller 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.