Federer Crushes Anderson in Cincinnati

Another impressive win for the Cincy GOAT as he crushed big serving Kevin Anderson 6-1 6-1 to book his spot in the Western and Southern Open Quarter Finals.

Roger was a big favourite heading into the encounter with a 3-0 H2H advantage and he lived up to the billing. Breaking Anderson at will and not facing a single break point on his own serve. The Swiss hit 23 winners to just 8 unforced errors to record his victory in just 55 minutes.

Quick Match Recap

Federer won the toss and elected to serve; finding his mark early with an ace and holding to love. Anderson made 100% of first serves in game 2, but was broken to 30 as Roger moved into a 2-0 lead.

The break was consolidated to love and with Anderson looking tight the double break soon followed. At 0-5 the South African finally got his first game on the board to avoid the bagel but Fed served out the set to take it 6-1.

Game 1 of Set 2 saw Anderson hold a game point but he botched a volley before dropping serve tamely. Again Roger could do no wrong as he held and at 3-1 he came up with some ridiculous ball striking to break for the second time.

4-1 soon became 5-1 and Anderson then slipped to 15-40 on his own serve. He was able to save 3 match points but an aggressive return from Roger saw Anderson dump his forehand into the net. Game, Set, Match Federer 6-1 6-1.

Match Stats

Highlights

Thoughts on the Match

Definitely felt better than other days. Felt good on the return, felt good on the serve, seeing just the ball really well. It's a pleasure to play that way because it doesn't happen very often that you feel this good. So you've got to enjoy it, but then, unfortunately, you have to quickly put it behind you and look forward. I played a great match and I'm very pleased, because I knew that tough challenge ahead. I had practised with Kevin last week here. I lost both sets I played with him in practice, so I was really happy that I was able to turn it around tonight.

I think Roger sums this one up pretty well and it was just one of those matches where he could do no wrong.

Anderson came out looking tight which is never ideal and Roger just steam rolled him from the get go. With Fed breaking immediately it set the tone allowing him to relax and play freely from the baseline.

In a nutshell Fed was just too quick, too smart and too solid. He nullified Anderson's serve and zapped whatever belief or confidence Anderson stepped onto the court within 30 seconds of the match starting.

Quite an interesting quote above too about Fed hitting with Anderson and losing both practice sets. Pretty much every player will play better in practice and less so in competitive play; but with Anderson it looks to be exacerbated which is why his record against Top 10, barring Stan, is terrible.

Predictions vs. Lopez

Played a lot against him in my life. We go way back to the European Championships, under-16 and under-18 where I lost both times against him. Then on the Tour I don't think I lost against him, but we played on all different conditions, and we know each other obviously very well because of that. It was a tough match for him tonight; played a good ’breaker. Obviously everybody knows how well he can serve. He also beat Raonic here, now Rafa. Clearly he's on a run.

Yet again no Fedal encounter as Lopez defeated his fellow countrymen in a third set tie break. I watched the latter stages of the match and Lopez came up with the goods, winning an awesome first point in the breaker and finding big serves thereafter.

Nadal didn't look terrible by any means but he's just not winning as many of the important points of late. He came up with a crazily good pass to get the mini break back in the breaker but didn't play with the intensity we've become accustomed to.

As for tonight's encounter Roger leads the H2H 11-0 and usually handles Lopez with ease. There's been a couple of close matches, notably in Madrid 2011 where Lopez choked a routine overhead at 5-2 in the third set tie break. Probably one of the funniest misses you'll ever see:

From what I've seen so far from Fed he's going to have too much for Lopez from the back of the court. If the Spaniard can serve and volley well we might see some close sets but I thin Fed gets in done in straights. 6-4 6-2.