Federer into last eight at Halle event
HALLE: Roger federer kept his chances of an eighth title at Halle on track when he overpowered Latvian Ernests gulbis 6-3, 7-5 on Wednesday to breeze into the quarter-finals
The 33 year old, 17-time Grand Slam winner was pushed to three sets in the previous round by Philipp Kohlschreiber but had fewer problems with Gulbis.
He will now meet Germany’s Florian Mayer, who defeated American Steve Johnson 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Federer joked that he was in better form than world No.I Novak Djokovic – the man he lost against in last year’s Wimbledon final.
“Yes, because I’ve won two matches on grass and he hasn’t won any yet,” said the Swiss in reference to Djokovic’s decision not to play a grasscourt event before Wimbledon.
“Kidding aside, yes, I hope to be competitive. I hope I’m going to be in good shape. I hope we play against each other [at Wimbledon].
“I believe with the year he had and the Wimbledon last year,he’s going to be favourite, he’s going to be playing very well again. Anything else will be quite surprising.”
Defending chamion Federer took advantage of one of his two break opportunities to snatch the first set against Gulbis, who knowcked him out of the 2014 French Open, and never looked back as he broke for 6-5 in the second to set up a winning chance.
He closed out the match in style as he improved his record for the season to 30 wins against sixdefeats. AFP