Federer has it too easy, claims rival Benneteau
RoGeR Federer cancelled practice yesterday ahead of a match he has to win tonight to get his campaign back on track at the aTP Finals.
and an unhappy week so far was not made any better following claims by French player Julien Benneteau that he has received favouritism in scheduling at Grand slams, notably the australian open.
Benneteau was also critical of the Laver cup team event that Federer and his management have created and promoted.
The swiss, who faces Dominic Thiem tonight, chose not to hit yesterday after sunday’s opening group defeat by kei Nishikori. Benneteau made the connection between the fact that Tennis australia has a financial stake in the Ryder cup-style Laver cup and Federer getting to play more night matches in melbourne, out of the daytime heat.
Benneteau told Radio monte carlo that ‘there are a number of conflicts of interest that become disturbing’ and claimed the game’s authorities have deferred to Federer too much over the Laver project.
he said: ‘This is where i find the tennis bodies incredibly weak. it’s an exhibition, there is no sporting criteria in the selection. it gives £583,000 to Nick kyrgios. Yes, those are the rates.’
Tennis australia did not respond when asked for comment.
meanwhile, Novak Djokovic got his campaign under way as he swept past John isner.
Djokovic, who received the year-ending world No1 trophy on court on sunday, is red-hot favourite to win in London and equal Federer’s six-title haul.
and not even the booming serve of world No 10 isner, standing at 6ft 10in, could knock Djokovic out of his stride as he completed a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
‘it’s great to be back in the o2, it’s been a lucky place for me over the years,’ said Djokovic.
‘The match was great. i managed to get three breaks of John’s serve which is sometimes mission impossible, but i managed to be at the right place at the right time and i held my serve very well and played solid.
‘i missed this tournament last year because of injury. i kind of enjoyed the time off but i missed this arena and i’m glad to be back.’
alexander Zverev opened his campaign yesterday with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1) win over marin cilic.
Last year’s Wimbledon runner-up has now won just one of his ten matches at the endof-season tournament and that came against Nishikori in 2016 when cilic had already been eliminated.
it was also a sixth-straight defeat inflicted upon cilic by German rising star Zverev and a lot of it was of the croatian’s making.
cilic had break points for 4-0 and 5-1 in the opening set but could not take advantage, allowing Zverev to work his way back into the set with a break for 4-5.
Then at deuce, cilic consulted umpire ali Nili before deciding against challenging a long call which, had he done so, would have earned him set point. Zverev took the set on the tie break.
cilic broke for 4-3 in the second but, ever the nervous front-runner, he promptly let Zverev straight back in and had to save a match point serving at 4-5 before the German triumphed in the tie break.
‘i just wanted to fight back from every score,’ said Zverev.
‘he was up a break in both sets but it was a very important match. You don’t want to start the group stages with a defeat.’