Nadal withstands second Rosol onslaught
LONDON: For the first time this tournament, a match finished under the Centre Court roof on Thursday evening, as Roger Federer defeated Gilles Muller 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the third round at Wimbledon.
Play was suspended temporarily at 4-3 in the second set as a persistent drizzle forced organisers to close the roof.
At the resumption, Federer wrapped up victory in one hour and 34 minutes. The Swiss fired 25 aces and committed just five unforced errors in a near-faultless display. He won 91 percent of points on his first serve and did not face a break point throughout.
On each occasion that he has beaten Muller during a tournament, Federer has gone on to win the title. They were facing each other for the first time since the 2008 US Open quarterfinals, with Federer improving to a 4-0 head-to-head record over Muller.
The 32-year-old Federer is bidding to win an unprecedented eighth title at the All England Club. The Swiss has a 69-8 tournament record, winning the title in 2003-’07, ’09 and ’12. His 17th and most recent Grand Slam championship came two years ago on the lawns of Wimbledon, with victory over Andy Murray.
Last year’s semifinalist Jerzy Janowicz was leading 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 4-4, while the match between Marcel Granollers and Santiago Giraldo was suspended three games into the fifth set. The match between Feliciano Lopez and Ante Pavic did not make it onto court.
“It’s only been my second match, and it was totally different to the first one, a big leftie coming to the net,” Federer said after his victory.
“It was a serving contest and I am happy I made it because it was tough with the rain delay. It’s nice to make aces, good for the confidence but I have got to keep working hard.”
Earlier in the day lightning threatened to strike twice for Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon as his 2012 conqueror Lukas Rosol took a set from the world No. 1 in a second-round tussle.
But Rosol, who shocked Spaniard Nadal at the same stage two years ago, could not maintain the charge and went down 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4 in two hours 44 minutes on Centre Court.
After an exhausting fortnight on clay, Nadal said he was always going to struggle to settle on grass, and Rosol gave him some timely practice before his third-round clash with Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan on Saturday.
Serena makes short work of Scheepers
Serena Williams showed no ill-effects from a late-night doubles outing, barely breaking sweat in a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers to reach the third round.
The American top seed was first up on Court One on Thursday, having had to wait until 9:00pm the previous evening to clinch a three-set win with sister Venus, but looked fresh and eager to make short work of 94th-ranked Scheepers.
Having dropped only three games in the previous round, Serena was even more convincing as she overpowered Scheepers, sending down eight aces and hitting 26 winners as she wrapped up proceedings in only 49 minutes.
The world No.1, who went out at this stage of last month’s French Open, next faces Alize Cornet, who has already beaten the American this year.
The French 25th seed defeated Petra Cotkovska 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to set up what Serena expects to be a more challenging test than Thursday’s romp.
In other matches, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outlasted a determined Sam Querrey to win a monumental five-setter 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 6-3, 14-12. But that was not the only match to go well into the distance, with Nick Kyrgios saving match points on his way to a 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5, 10-8 victory over Richard Gasquet.
The women generally had it easier with Ana Ivanovic dispensing with Zheng Jie 6-4, 6-0, while Eugenie Bouchard took care of Silvia Soler-Espinosa 7-5, 6-1.
Later on Maria Sharapova dealt Timea Bacsinszky a 6-2, 6-1 defeat.
Late on Wednesday, David Ferrer was dealt a big blow when he lost to Andrey Kuznetsov 6-7 (5), 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. (Agencies)