Federer swiftly into stride

Monday, 23 June 2008

Written by Ronald Atkin

Roger Federer provided a masterly response on Centre Court today to those who have expressed doubts about his recent form. The Wimbledon champion, chasing his sixth consecutive title at The Championships, opened his defence in rousing fashion, defeating the Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in one hour 19 minutes.

So much was Federer in command, particularly on his own serve, that he never faced a break point, and some of his classically executed winners were up to even his own demanding standards.



This was the Swiss's 36th win on the grass of Wimbledon and 60th in succession when his victories in Halle, Germany are included. Having received a warm and sunny welcome when he took to the court at 1pm, Federer basked in a rousing ovation at the end. The delighted Federer acknowleged the cheers, hurling his wrist bands into the crowd.

The 30-year-old Hrbaty put up a much better fight than might have been expected from someone who got into Wimbledon with a protected ranking of 70 after several months out because of two elbow operations, and who has won only one match on the ATP Tour this year.

He was also able to celebrate extravagantly the shot of the match. Left flat-footed in the first set by a Federer lob and unable to get to the ball for an approved return, Hrbaty struck it back between his legs for a clean winner down the line, astonishing Federer.

One of only three players to hold a winning record against Federer - he came into this match with a 2-0 lead - Hrbaty never looked like extending that advantage. Federer, hitting with power and accuracy from the start, won the first 11 points and was 4-1 ahead after just 10 minutes.

From that moment Hrbaty made a much better battle of the first set, even holding his serve to love on one occasion. Even so, Federer had the first set wrapped up in 25 minutes, and followed up a service break at the start of the second set by opening up a 4-0 lead. Hrbaty fought off a break point that would have put the defending champion 5-0 ahead but the second set was Federer's in 29 minutes.

There were cheers for Hrbaty, whose finest Grand Slam performance was a Roland Garros semi-final in 1999, when he held serve to open the third set, the first time he had led in the match. Perhaps this served to remind Federer that matches have been lost from two sets up in the past. At any rate he began to unveil his full range of strokes, allied to excellent movement on the fresh, new surface and, hard though Hrbaty fought, the Swiss knocked off five games in succession.

There was a heart-warming moment when, at the changeover before Federer prepared to serve for the match, Hrbaty broke all the conventions by going to sit alongside his opponent for a chat. If he was asking Federer to go easy, it did no good. The final game was won to love and Federer was impressively embarked on the defence of his crown.