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PARIS. — Swiss eighth seed Roger Federer regained his composure during a heated battle with Croatia’s Marin Cilic to reach the French Open third round yesterday.
Federer, 39, had some testy exchanges with the umpire on his way to a 6-2 2-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 win on the Paris clay.
Top seed Novak Djokovic produced a focused performance to reach the third round for a 16th consecutive year.
The 34-year-old Serb won 6-3 6-2 6-4 in his first career meeting with tricky Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas.
Djokovic will face Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis, ranked 93rd in the world, in the last 32.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion is aiming for a second title in Paris to follow up his sole win in 2016.
If Djokovic does lift the Coupe des Mousquetaires on 13 June, the world number one will close the gap on Nadal and Federer in terms of Grand Slam victories to one.
All three players find themselves in the same half of the Roland Garros draw — the first time that this has happened at a major tournament.
Having barely played since the 2020 Australian Open following two knee operations, Federer has been keen to dampen expectations on only his second visit to Roland Garros since 2015. The 20-time Grand Slam champion says he is focusing on being in prime shape for next month’s Wimbledon — where he has won a record eight men’s singles titles — although privately may harbour higher hopes of a deep run on the Paris clay.
After an impressive opening win against Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, he faced a step up in quality against former US Open champion Cilic. Other than in a ragged second set, where Federer lost his cool with the umpire after being warned for taking too long between points, the Swiss star played fluently throughout and looked to be moving well.
“I was a bit surprised by the level I played because I didn’t play so much lately,” said Federer, who faces 59th-ranked Dominik Koepfer of Germany next. — AFP.
Online Reporter