Federer advances with milestone Masters win

Roger Federer of Switzerland hits a return to Vasek Pospisil of Canada in their second round match of the Western & Southern Open at the Linder Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, on Wednesday.

Reuters/Cincinnati

Roger Federer survived an opening-match fright by outlasting Canada’s Vasek Pospisil 7-6(4) 5-7 6-2 on Wednesday to claim his 300th Masters Series win and reach the third round of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Back in action after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Sunday, third-ranked Federer appeared sluggish at times as he struggled to tame the 46th-ranked Canadian.

With the victory, the second seeded Swiss, a five-time champion on the Cincinnati hard courts, becomes the first player to reach 300 wins in the ATP Tour’s elite Masters 1000 events.

Neither player was able to capitalize on early break chances before Federer eventually won the first set tiebreak on a forehand error by the Canadian.

Pospisil, Wimbledon doubles champion with American Jack Sock, battled back to take the second set but a focused Federer wasted no time taking charge in the third with an early break putting him on the way to clinching the milestone win.

“It’s a nice round number,” said Federer of his most recent achievement, “I’ve had some more important ones than the one today, but nevertheless it’s nice to reach such milestones.

“I was one of those guys who struggled early on in the Masters 1000. I know how hard it is to win all these matches because it’s always against top 50 players, if not top 20, if not top 10.

“From that standpoint, I’m obviously happy that it is at 300, it’s nice.”

The day featured a pair of early upsets with Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun shocking fourth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 3-6 6-3 6-4 while Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz knocked off Bulgarian seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 3-6 6-3.

In evening matches, Frenchman Gael Monfils sent 13th seed Roberto Bautista Agut home with a dominant 6-4 6-1 win in just under an hour.

The world number 23 gave his 18th ranked opponent a hard-court lesson, winning 80% of his first serves on his way to victory, setting up a date with Federer in the third round.

After a first round bye, eighth seeded Briton Andy Murray got his tournament off to a convincing start by easing past Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-3 6-3.

Murray, who has twice hoisted the trophy in Cincinnati, faced just two break points in the entire match, saving both, while disposing of his Portuguese opponent in a tidy 72 minutes.

“The conditions are completely different here to Toronto,” said Murray, who made a quarter-final exit in Canada. “A few of the guys that have come in late have struggled with the conditions.

“I hit the ball well from the back of the court today. I was able to control the ball well.

“That was, for me, the most pleasing thing about the match today because I have seen a lot of the players have struggled so far.”

RESULTS

Second round: Gael Monfils (France) beat 13-Roberto Bautista (Spain) 6-4 6-1 5-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat Robby Ginepri (US) 6-2 6-2 Steve Johnson (US) beat 9-Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 6-4 6-4 6-David Ferrer (Spain) beat Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 6-7 (4) 7-6 (4) 7-6 (4) 14-Marin Cilic (Croatia) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 7-6 (6) 7-6 (5) 2-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Vasek Pospisil (Canada) 7-6 (4) 5-7 6-2 15-Fabio Fognini (Italy) beat Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 6-1 6-4 11-John Isner (US) beat Marinko Matosevic (Australia) 6-3 7-6 (1) 16-Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Sam Querrey (US) 6-2 6-4 Julien Benneteau (France) beat James Ward (Britain) 6-2 6-2 Jerzy Janowicz (Poland) beat 7-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) 6-4 3-6 6-3 Lu Yen-Hsun (Taiwan) beat 4-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 3-6 6-3 6-4 Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Andreas Seppi (Italy) 6-3 6-4 8-Andy Murray (Britain) beat Joao Sousa (Portugal) 6-3 6-3