An imperfect Roger Federer edges Diego Schwartzman in the Shanghai opener.

The Swiss legend didn’t seem to be at ease in his Shanghai opener from the very beginning. Roger was not pursuing “any greatness” to play a very conservative tennis from the very beginning as he wasn’t feeling the ball.

The match

The world no.2 conquered a break in the 6^th game (4-2), to surrender his service immediately after (4-3). The affair went to the breaker, and Roger conceded immediately a minibreak to trail on a 0-2 scoreline. Then the Maestro won the following 5 points (5-2) before winning the tiebreak 6-3. 

Later, Roger conquered the decisive break of the second set in the very first game at love; then the Maestro had to “just” hold serve for the rest of the set to win the match 7-6 (3) 6-4.

Next vs. Dolgopolov

Roger will face Dolgopolov in the 3^rd round. The head to head is 4-0 for Roger that has never conceded a single set to the Ukraine. Dolgopolov has retired in 2 occasions against the Maestro.