Injured Federer suffers first-round exit

Swiss crashes out in Gstaad as back pain puts US Open plan under threat.

GSTAAD: Roger Federer’s US Open preparations could be in danger after the 17-time Grand Slam winner was beaten in his opening match at the Swiss Open while playing with back pain against Daniel Brands.

The German clinched a 6-3, 6-4 win for a place in the quarter-finals, coming good after taking the Swiss star to three sets in Hamburg last week.

Federer said that he has been dealing with the back pain for a few weeks now.

He hinted that he will be taking a late decision on whether or not to play the Montreal Masters, a key US Open warm-up event, which begins a week from Monday on August 5.

“I’ve had serious problems with the back, I had to get some anti-inflammatories last week in Hamburg due to the pain,” he said.

“I will have to do a lot of exercises and see how it all feels. My main priority now is to fix my back. I would love to be able to train at 100 percent.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2013.

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