Federer reaches quarters in Basel Murray out

Written by: Global Chick on 3rd November 2011

Federer reaches quarters in Basel Murray out

Finland's Jarkko Nieminen returns a ball to Switzerland's Roger Federerduring their round of sixteen match at the Swiss Indoors tennis tournament at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, 02 November 2011. EPA/GEORGIOS KEFALAS |

Former World No. 1 Roger Federer needed one hour and 30 minutes to defeat Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 4-6 6-3 on Wednesday at the Swiss Indoors in Basel.

The first set was a very one sided affair and Herr Federer finished it off in 24 minutes. The Finn came back and broke the Swiss’ serve twice to take the second set 6-4. The hometown hero used his famous overdrive to take a 3-0 lead in the third set. Nieminen didn’t have a chance after that and Roger is one step closer to winning his fifth title in Basel.

“He was obviously finding his range better, playing a bit better and getting better rhythm as the match went on since he’s a baseliner. It was due to my ups and downs that he found a chance in the second set. All in all I’m pretty pleased.

The winner of Andy Roddick and Radek Stepanek will have the pleasure of playing Federer in the quarterfinals. Roddick downed former Top 10 player Tommy Haas of Germany 6-3 6-4. The American has still got a chance to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London if he keeps winning in the next two weeks. Roddick has been a part of the end-of-year event for the last eight years.

Tricky player Radek Stepanek had a great day in the office and finished off Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-1 6-3. Florian Mayer is through to the second round after his opponent the number six seed Janko Tipsarevic pulled out after six games with a hamstring injury. Mayer will meet Ivan Ljubicic next.

Marcos Baghdatis fought hard to earn his spot in the Basel quarterfinals. The Cypriot won the first set in a tiebreak against Swiss qualifier Michael Lammer. The second set went to Lammer in a tiebreaker. In the deciding set Baghdatis broke once and that was enough to win the set and the match 6-4. The World No. 57 will now play the number once seed Novak Djokovic or Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot.

Brit Andy Murray had to pull out of his first round match on Wednesday. “I woke up yesterday and was really struggling to walk. I went to a swimming pool nearby and did some exercises and it felt a little better, but I was forced to cancel my practice yesterday. It is just a freak thing and I have no idea how I did it,” Murray said.

The World Number three was replaced by Swiss lucky loser Maro Chiudinelli who lost to Robin Haase 6-2 7-6 (7).

Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor went through to the second round in the doubles because of a walk over from Andy and Jamie Murray due to Andy’s injury. 10sballs.com sponsored player Xavier Malisse and partner Dick Norman had a great win over Mahesh Bhupathi and Michal Mertinak in the first round winning 11-9 in the third set match tiebreak.

SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER, 2011  CENTER COURT start 14:00

[WC] K Nishikori (JPN) vs A Seppi (ITA)

Not Before 16:00

[1] N Djokovic (SRB) vs [Q] L Kubot (POL)

Not Before 18:00

[7] A Roddick (USA) vs R Stepanek (CZE)

Not Before 20:00

S Wawrinka (SUI) vs R Haase (NED)

COURT 2 start 14:00

F Mayer (GER) vs I Ljubicic (CRO)

[LL] M Kukushkin (KAZ) vs [Q] J Blake (USA)

[WC] S Bohli (SUI) / M Chiudinelli (SUI) vs C Fleming (GBR) / R Hutchins (GBR)