Short-term, Roger Federer had to adjust to his new opponant. But that did not slow him down at all. Against Lucky Loser Yuichi Sugita he got going full throttle and won after just 51 minutes in straight sets 6:3, 6:1. It was the Swiss' 1,100. victory on the tour.
The Japanese had jumped in for Yen-Hsun Lu from Taiwan, who had had to give up due to injury. In the second longest match in the history of the GERRY WEBER OPEN Yuichi Sugita had lost his qualifying match against the Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6:7(5), 7:6(11), 6:7(12). So he was well-rehearsed on grass, but that didn't help a lot. He made an effort, fought for every ball, but as soon as his shot was too short, the top-seed World's No. 5 exploited that without mercy. A break at 3:1 was enough for Roger Federer and after only 21 minutes he had his first set point 6:3.
And the Swissman didn't take his foot off the accelerator in the second round, either. Even though Yuichi Sugita could fend off a few break points, he wasn't able to win his service in this set. So Roger Federer had his first match point at a score of 5:0, 40:0. This wasn't a reason for the Japenese to give up, though. He fought on, fended off the three match points and in fact got the break to make it 1:5. But Federers victory was only persponed by this. The forth match point was there shortly afterward to bring it to 6:3, 6:1.
"I had never played him. And playing against me, all are always very motivated. That doesn't make it easy. But I'm very satisfied. That was a good start into the GERRY WEBER OPEN", a clearly satisfied Roger Federer said after the match. The top-favourite will now meet Mischa Zverev in the Round of 16.
