"I was ready for Struff to come out and swing. I didn't know how aggressive he was going to play or how much serve and volley he was going to do. But unfortunately, I didn't have the best first two service games. But he also played well, I must say. He connected well, he came out with a plan and it worked for him," Federer said. "In the second set it was close throughout, but I think I was able to clean up my game a little bit... I'm obviously happy I got through today."
Federer stretched his Basel winning streak to 17 and is two matches away from reaching his 14th final and his 12th in as many appearances. The 37-year-old was broken in the third game when he overplayed a forehand, and Struff, who was holding with ease behind 224 km/h serves, pushed his lead to 3-1 before Federer settled to take five straight games and the set behind the home faithful.
The 28-year-old Struff composed himself in the second, but serving at 40/40, 5-5, he threw in a pair of loose errors, including a double fault on break point. Federer, who's already qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, to be held 11-18 November, will next meet Frenchman Gilles Simon, who beat last week's Intrum Stockholm Open finalist Ernests Gulbis 7-6(4), 7-6(0). Federer leads the pair's FedEx ATP Head2Head series 6-2.
"I'm happy that I improved after a rocky, slow start today, to play well after that. I think the crowd was really into it. They were excited that I came back from being a break down," Federer said. "I'm excited for the next round, so I'm actually quite happy how I'm playing right now."
atpworldtour.com
Serve and forehand were back, looks like the real Roger turned up today. Hopefully he sticks around till the end of the tournament.
Serve and forehand were back, looks like the real Roger turned up today. Hopefully he sticks around till the end of the tournament.
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