Papa Federer and Baby Federer are on a collision course, but they had a couple of harsh hurdles to overcome on Wednesday.
Federer – Bellucci 6-3 6-7(6) 7-5
Not a good match for Federer. Bellucci is a strong and unpredictable player, but he is not in Roger’s league. Federer has been struggling for at least 6 months with his returns to make it difficult to win some matches and this was one of those.
Roger was super in serve and volley
The Swiss was just super in his serve and volley to produce incredible points. However, the impression was that he was abusing it to lose some rythm on the ground strokes.
… but he was struggling to return
Roger broke Bellucci twice in the first and the last service game, but he wasn’t any close in the other games. Thomaz served well, but Federer was completely unable to return. The problem was so obvious also during other matches such as the one with Murray in Shanghai when the Scott was superb in returning Roger’s serve while the Swiss couldn’t do the same. Federer has to change something (maybe 2 steps behind?)
The Match
The first set was as smooth as ever. Roger got a 3-0 lead in no time to just defend the break and win the opener 6-3. The second set went straight to the tiebreak where Roger saved 4 break points (2-6 down) to then implode in the next 2 points.
The third set was very tense. Roger was struggling more and more with his ground strokes and Bellucci was just there. The experience kept the Swiss alive until the Brazilian lost it in the 12th game.
From Federer
“I think I struggled on the return. I think I served smart. I played that part really well. I’m not too happy with my returning, but then again, he was a lefty and it was a change. Still, I would have hoped to have done a bit better.”
The match lasted 2 hours and this is bad news for Roger
Dimitrov – Benneteau 7-6(5) 6-7(1) 7-6(3)
This was a 2 hours and 52 minutes battle. Grigor won the match blasting 17 aces in 36 games and 3 tiebreaks. The Bulgarian is improving more and more to get just 1 step closer to his idol. If he wins the next match against either Davydenko or Mathieu he will play with Roger.
In the mean time Grigor produced a Federer’s like shot against Troicki in the previous match (click to see)…arguably the best of the year.
