Fifth seed Roger Federer defeated the ATP World Tour’s ace-leader this year, Ivo Karlovic, 6-4, 7-6(4) on Friday for a place in the Sony Open Tennis third round. It was his 20th win in 23 matches this year.
Federer, who is making his 15th appearance at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 hard-court tournament in Miami, lifted the trophy in 2005 (d. Nadal) and 2006 (d. Ljubicic). He will next play Thiemo de Bakker, who upset No. 28 seed Fernando Verdasco 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 6-2.
Federer broke Karlovic in the fifth game and only lost one point on serve in the 29-minute opener. It came at 5-4, 40/0. Federer lost just one of his service points en route to the second set tie-break. He is now 11-1 lifetime against Karlovic, after victory in 75 minutes. Vogue Editor-In-Chief Anna Wintour watched from Federer's box.
Last week, Federer reached his 35th ATP World Tour Masters 1000-level final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Djokovic). He picked up his 78th title overall at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (d. Berdych) last month.
Karlovic, 35, has now hit 308 aces in 19 matches this season (11-8 record). He is one of six players to hit more than 8,000 aces in his career, including Goran Ivanisevic, Andy Roddick, Pete Sampras, Federer, Ivan Ljubicic and Karlovic.
atpworldtour.com
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