Roger Federer - Daniel Gimeno-Traver
Istanbul Open 2015
Tremendous cheers from the crowd welcomed Roger Federer of Switzerland onto the Garanti Koza Arena's center court in his quarterfinal against Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain.
The Swiss Maestro, holder of 17 Grand Slam titles among other illustrious titles, had never played Gimeno-Traver before so we expected a slow start for Federer thinking he might need to assess the opponent’s game. Federer however started out well, holding serve quite easily and seemed to read Gimeno Traver’s serve quite well and led with a break just after 7 minutes. Gimeno managed though to break in the 3rd game after a series of careless errors from Federer and then held serve to even out the score. Maybe it was Gimeno-Traver was the one taking time to assess his opponent's game.
The set ended in a tiebreak with Federer taking it at 7-6(3) after a bit of a struggle. Both players upped their game towards the end of the first set but Federer was just a bit better.
The second set saw Federer broken twice and Gimeno-Traver managing to hold his service games. Way too many unforced errors from Federer gave Gimeno-Traver the opportunity to serve for the set at 5-3. The Spaniard could not, however, wrap up the set when serving for it and with Federer holding serve the next game brought the score to 5-all. Federer was still alive in this set.
In the 11th game Federer started off really well with three break point opportunities but could not convert them. The second set ended in yet another tiebreak which saw the Spaniard winning this time round setting the stage for a third and deciding set.
The 3rd set was more of a routine Federer-like set. Each player holding serve until the 8th game when Federer broke Gimeno-Traver’s serve and to serve for the match.
From looking lethargic and hitting wild shots in the second set and beginning of the third, Federer managed to somehow do some self-rejuvenation along the way to up his game. He managed to wrap up the quarterfinal after two and a half hours to play Diego Schwartzman of Argentina tomorrow.