Wimbledon: Cautious Federer records easy first-round win

Seven-time champion eager to make up for last year’s early exit.

LONDON: Roger Federer began his campaign for an eighth Wimbledon title with a confident 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 win over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi on Tuesday.

Defeat for Lorenzi meant the 32-year-old has still to win a match at a grand slam in 11 years and his record at the majors of no wins and 13 losses is the second worst in history.

But his run of 13 defeats in 13 matches at the majors is not a record — that statistic of shame belongs to Costa Rica’s Juan Antonio Marin who lost all of his 17 matches at the majors.



Federer came into the tournament buoyed by a seventh Halle grasscourt crown last week, but he had lost to Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovksy in the second round of Wimbledon 12 months ago. That was his earliest defeat at the tournament since 2002.

The Swiss took victory on a sixth match point having fired nine aces and 36 winners.

“It’s always good to win the first round because the court can be slippery sometimes,” said Federer.

Meanwhile, French 14th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a semi-finalist in 2011 and 2012, needed just four points and three minutes to finish off Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-1, 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a match held over from Monday.

“It was quick. I played only four points,” said Tsonga. “But it wasn’t easy to come back after last night. I played a good four points and finally I won.”

Wawrinka, Lisicki sail through

Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka reached the Wimbledon second round, as defending women’s champion Marion Bartoli made a tearful return to Centre Court.

Wawrinka, the world number three but seeded five at the All England Club in a reflection of his grasscourt struggles, fired 18 aces and 39 winners in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 win over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.

Wawrinka, who has never gone beyond the fourth round and was without a win in the tournament since 2011, tackles Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun for a place in the last 32.

“It’s a quick surface; you have to be relaxed and confident,” said the Swiss. “Sometimes you can be nervous.”

Bartoli performed the coin toss ahead of the first round match between Sabine Lisicki, the German she defeated in the final last year, and Israel’s Julia Glushko.

The Frenchwoman retired in the immediate aftermath of her Wimbledon win and as a result it was Lisicki who was given the honour of opening the action on Tuesday.

Lisicki, yet to get beyond the third round of any event in 2014, was untroubled against Glushko, the world number 79, winning 6-2, 6-1 in just 57 minutes.

“It’s such a huge honour to play the first match, I’m very thankful,” said 19th-seeded Lisicki. “It was very special to see Bartoli again.”

Other early winners on Tuesday were German 20th seed Andrea Petkovic, a semi-finalist at the French Open, who eased past Katarzyna Piter of Poland, 6-1, 6-4, and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, the 16th seeded Dane, who beat Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-3, 6-0.

Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the 2012 runner-up, beat Romania’s Andreea Mitu 6-2, 6-1.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2014.

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