World number one Roger Federer recovered from a poor start to beat Spain's Fernando Verdasco in the first evening session of the ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena.
Federer was broken to love in the opening game and did not fashion a break point until game 12 of the second set.
But he converted that opportunity to level the match and eased through to win the round-robin clash 4-6 7-5 6-1 and take his career record against Verdasco to 4-0.
Andy Murray beat Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday's first singles match, and he and Federer will meet on Tuesday as the early favourites to take the two semi-finals places from Group A.
Verdasco will take on Del Potro with both men knowing a win is vital if they are to maintain a realistic challenge.
The roar for his arrival showed the London crowd was thrilled to see six-time Wimbledon champion Federer back in London for the second time in 2009, but the top seed made a dreadful start.
Federer opened with a double-fault and followed up with two forehand errors and a backhand into the net as he dropped serve to love.
Verdasco has long had a reputation for the spectacular but this year has managed to harness his talent on a more consistent basis, hence his first appearance at the season finale.
The Spaniard made a major breakthrough when he served Murray off the court at the Australian Open in January before losing a five-hour epic against Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.
And it was the big serve and heavy forehand combination that had Federer in trouble early on Sunday evening as the Swiss struggled to keep the error count down, at one stage swiping his racquet in frustration at the court.
0 comments:
Post a Comment