Roger Federer showed signs of full recovery from a shock loss this month as he rolled over American teenager Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-3 into the third round of the Miami Masters on a rainy Saturday.
The number one sat through a day of rain which delayed his night match by an hour or more. But once back in action, the top seeded defending champion wasted no time in homing in on the victory.
The Swiss polished his tournament record to 25 wins and six defeats after winning the last two editions comprising a dozen matches.
He was watched by golfing friend Tiger Woods.
”He told me since a couple of months he’s going to come out because I knew so far in advance when I was going to play. So that was a great thing. I think we should do that more in the future,” said Federer.
One of the hottest current men’s players, German Tommy Haas, took a bullet as he crashed out to Colombia’s number 95 Alejandro Falla, 6-4, 6-4.
Haas came to his Florida base with only two losses since early February and a title at Memphis. But after losing a tense quarterfinal last week in Indian Wells to Andy Murray, he could not pick up his form.
South American Falla had lost in qualifying rounds but got into the draw on the back of two pull-outs on Friday. He had been due to fly to Mexico before his place was assured.
Croatian seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic got past past Italy’s Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-2 while Argentine number 11 David Nalbandian beat American Vince Spadea 6-3, 6-4.
”I feel that I played good,” said Nalbandian. ”If I win one or two more matches and get more confidence, maybe I can be dangerous.”
Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seeded 15th, beat compatriot Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 0-6, 6-2.
It was the perfect storm for Finn Jarkko Nieminen in a 6-0, 6-0 sweep of outgunned Russian Euvgeni Korolev, setting up a match with Nalbandian who stands 5-3 in their career series.
Women’s top seed Maria Sharapova patched together her game in an opening match, moving past Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan 6-3, 6-2.
The Russian, losing finalist at the past two editions at Crandon Park, admitted that she will need to lift her game to progress further.
”It was a little bit up and down, but I felt like I was in control,” said the world number two. Sharapova lost the top ranking on Monday after an early defeat at Indian Wells this month.
”With the break points she had, I was able to come up with a good defensive play,” she said. ”Overall, it’s the first match, you’re never completely there. But, I’m sure I’ll get better.”
Sharapova was plagued by 30 unforced errors as she set up a third-round encounter after a bye against the winner from fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko and two-time former champion Venus Williams.
”Either way it’s going to be pretty tough,” Sharapova said of the next round. ”It’s never easy playing a good friend, and Venus also has a lot of experience behind her back.” – Sapa-DPA