Tough battle for Roger Federer against Jeremy Chardy.
The Maestro has always struggled with the Frenchman to always lose at least a set against him. Jeremy’s tennis is at times similar to Roger’s with many anticipations and a deadly forehand. The world no.2 had also some problems at adapting to the surface and his forehand and his serve were definitely not working like in Basel.
Roger managed to win the first set at the tie break after recovering a 1-4 deficit and saving 4 set points. Even if Roger found the way to grab the opener, that wasn’t nice for him: the Swiss was already broke twice… same as the entire tournament in Basel.
In the second set Roger failed to convert 2 match points on Chardy’s serve while he was leading 7-6 (5) 5-4 15-40. The Swiss had definitely on his racket the opportunity to win the second match point, but eventually he missed a relatively easy forehand.
In the third set Federer won the decisive break at the very beginning (1-0), he struggled a bit to hold serve soon after and then… game over: Roger held his serve at “15” and “love” in the following games. The final result is 7-6 (5) 6-7 (5) 6-4. The match ended after 2 hours and 31 minutes (not good for Federer that needs quick matches).
Some numbers
It’s clear that Roger didn’t shine as usual from some stats. Roger put only 59% of his first serves in, he scored only 6 points more than Chardy (124 – 118) and his break point conversion once agaon not brilliant (3 of 12). Match Stats.
Roger now leads Chardy 2-1 in H2H.
Federer: I knew it would have been tough
Chardy has made it hard for me in the past. I thought it could be tough, and it was. Could have lost the first, could have won the second, but it went the other way. So I think as the match went longer, the better I actually started to play and created more opportunities.”
Next vs. Pouille
Roger had the good news that he will have a relatively easy 3rd round against world no.176 Lucas Pouille. Roger needs to win this match as quick as he can to save some energies.
