Roger Federer improved to 53-5 lifetime at the Gerry Weber Open and 46-2 in his last 48 matches by defeating Malek Jaziri 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and nine minutes on Thursday afternoon. Federer fired five aces without double-faulting on his way to a quarterfinal showdown against David Goffin.
The 34-year-old Swiss seized a break at 4-3 in the opening set before suddenly finding himself down 3-0 in the second. But Jaziri could not hold off his opponent and the Tunisian’s third donation of serve at 5-5 proved to be his final undoing.
“I thought he was reading my serve throughout the first set, so I started to serve a little bit different in the second set,” Federer said of Jaziri. “I was having more success that way. I was happy to come through a tough match because I thought he’s tough to play against. I struggled to read his technique; the way he gets into the ball I can’t really tell where he goes.
“I wish I could have played maybe a bit better at times but I must put it down to my opponent keeping me off balance. He was doing a really nice job of making me feel uncomfortable for a while.”
The world No. 3 could also run into some trouble against a red-hot Goffin, who advanced to semifinals in Indian Wells and Miami earlier this season and is coming off a quarterfinal performance at Roland Garros.
Goffin flirted with disaster during second-round action against Sergiy Stakhovsky on Thursday. The Ukrainian served for a straight-set victory but failed to seal the deal and eventually got injured when he slipped and hurt his back. Stakhovsky retired with Goffin leading 4-6, 7-5, 2-0.
On the other side of the draw, Dominic Thiem and Philipp Kohlschreiber are set to face each other for the second time this week. They just squared off in the rain-delayed Stuttgart final on Monday, with Thiem triumphing in three sets. The Austrian easily handled Teymuraz Gabashvili in the Halle second round, while Kohlschreiber outlasted Ivo Karlovic in three sets.
Topics: 10sballs.com, Atp World Tour, David Goffin, Gerry Weber Open, Grass tennis, Halle, Malek Jaziri, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis News