Federer Makes Winning Start in Shanghai

Seems like forever since we last saw Roger on court and he came back with a bang today beating Lu Yen-hsun 6-3, 7-5 in 1 hour and 20 minutes to setup a clash with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, which if he wins will secure the Number 1 slot for a while longer.

I have to say I really enjoyed this match and the atmosphere was awsome even just watching it on TV, it was almost final like in some cases as the crowd really got into it.

I said in my Shanghai Draw post it’d be great if Chinese Wild Card Zhang got through his match and faced Roger today as it’d have been great for the fans. Of course little did I know he’d be playing another hometown favourite Lu Yen-hsun from Chinese Taipei so it was a total win win situation for the fans and clearly meant todays match was much anticipated.

To say Roger’s been off for 3 weeks he looked pretty sharp right from the off and he had to find his game early because Lu was enjoying himself and coming up with some great shots seemingly at will.

To be honest I think Lu had the better of the early exchanges and as usual it was Roger’s first serve that kept him him in it. At 2-2 Lu double faulted under pressure and Roger got the key break that turned out to be enough to win the first set. Key stat from the first was Roger won 100% of points behind his first serve which is pretty insane. GOAT.

Into the second set and it was a lot closer, Lu had quite a few chances on Roger’s service games but just couldn’t capitalise. I thought Fed defended really well and the low-ish bounce meant his slice backhand was ultra effective, keeping in him a lot of points that he could easily have lost.

I thought for a minute Lu might be able to win the second set after he pulled off a mammoth hold at 3-3 but ultimately Roger was too sharp, serving too well and found the goods when it mattered eventually breaking to serve it out 7-5.

It’s just about getting a sense of how to play the points again, even though it’s [only] been a couple of weeks, but my last matches were on clay. You always wonder if you have lost something in the meantime. I’m happy that things worked out well today because I thought Lu played a pretty good match. He’s got the game to be really dangerous, particularly on a fast court like today. I was able to manage. That was a good thing too me, so I’m really happy. He played inspiring tennis at times. It was a good atmosphere and a nice match to play.

Federer vs Lu Match Stats

Thanks to @JanellLovell for typing this up!

Predictions vs. Wawrinka

Another match against Stan, historically these are pretty boring and rather one sided. Roger leads the H2H 11-1 and he’ll probably extend that tomorrow.

The courts look pretty fast and aren’t bouncing high which plays even more in his favour. Stan has a great backhand but as Roger said in an interview he knows for a fact Wawrinka struggles against him and he can use that to his advantage.

I don’t see Stan winning but hopefully we see some good rallies and nice points. I figure Roger might serve and volley a bit more than he did today and look to play strong offensive tennis and he should make the Quarter finals.

By the way, if he makes the Quarters he’ll keep the number 1 position for a while longer breaking the 300 weeks barrier. Pretty cool.

I’m obviously excited, tt’s a big number, even though 299 or 300 doesn’t make a big difference for me. It’s obviously a big match for me. If you look back, there’s many matches where there was a lot on the line, so this is just another one. It’s just more the difficulty also playing a good friend. That adds to the special occasion tomorrow.