Federer passes the Greul challenge, advances to 3rd round

Playing in his first match of the tournament under the bright lights, Roger Federer did not disappoint the New York crowd, serving up an array of shot-making en route to a hard fought 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 win over unseeded Simon Greul.

Federer, decked out in his slick black and red Nike attire, started the match in crisp fashion, dominating the points with his forehand to get the early break to go up 3-1. Federer would hold serve the rest of the way to easily close out the set, 6-3.

After playing a very tentative and nervous looking first set, Greul really started to relax and the results were much better. Greul was getting much more depth and pace on his shots and, believe it or not, Federer was the run doing most of the running in the second set. A particularly effective strategy was pounding Federer in the backhand to backhand exchanges, creating nice angles that pulled Federer wide, which allowed him to run around and hit his big forehand up the line.

Greul’s tactic of stepping inside the court and taking the return early nearly paid off, at 5-4 in the second set, getting him two set points. But as he’s done so often throughout his illustrious career, Federer came up with the goods when it mattered most. A service winner, followed by a lunging backhand stab volley wiped away the two set points. And, as expected, Federer regained the momentum of the match, breaking the German in the next game and closing out the set on his serve.

To his credit, Greul did not let that meltdown at the end of the second set bring down his high level of play. He broke Federer immediately in the third set to grab a 4-1 lead, and giving himself a decent chance of extending the match another set. But Federer was having none of it, breaking back on a slew of Greul unforced errors. Like he did in the second set, Federer avoided the tiebreaker by breaking his opponent in the 11th game. And although he struggled to close it out in his next service game (saving a break point), Federer emphatically finished the match with an ace.


Notes and Match Stats

• Federer extended his Open Era US Open winning streak to 36 matches
• This was only Gruel’s 9th Grand Slam match… he fell to 2-7 in those matches
• Winners/Unforced Errors: Federer – 35/27 Greul – 21/31
• Federer won 26 out of 35 Net Points