|
 Back in action after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of
the Rogers Cup in Toronto on Sunday, third-ranked Federer appeared
sluggish at times as he struggled to tame the 46th-ranked Canadian.
With the victory, the second seeded Swiss, a five-time champion on
the Cincinnati hard courts, becomes the first player to reach 300
wins in the ATP Tour's elite Masters 1000 events.
Neither player was able to capitalize on early break chances before
Federer eventually won the first set tiebreak on a forehand error by
the Canadian.
Pospisil, Wimbledon doubles champion with American Jack Sock,
battled back to take the second set but a focused Federer wasted no
time taking charge in the third with an early break putting him on
the way to clinching the milestone win.
The day featured a pair of early upsets with Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun
shocking fourth seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 3-6 6-3 6-4 while
Poland's Jerzy Janowicz knocked off Bulgarian seventh seed Grigor
Dimitrov 6-4 3-6 6-3.
In evening matches, Frenchman Gael Monfils sent 13th seed Roberto
Bautista Agut home with a dominant 6-4 6-1 win in just under an
hour.
The world number 23 gave his 18th ranked opponent a hard-court
lesson, winning 80 percent of his first serves on his way to
victory, setting up a date with Federer in the third round.
After a first round bye, eighth seeded Briton Andy Murray got his
tournament off to a convincing start by easing past Portugal's Joao
Sousa 6-3 6-3.
Murray, who has twice hoisted the trophy in Cincinnati, faced just
two break points in the entire match, saving both, while disposing
of his Portuguese opponent in a tidy 72 minutes.
[to top of second column]
|
"The conditions are completely different here to Toronto," said
Murray, who made a quarter-final exit in Canada. "A few of the guys
that have come in late have struggled with the conditions.
"I hit the ball well from the back of the court today. I was able to
control the ball well.
"That was, for me, the most pleasing thing about the match today
because I have seen a lot of the players have struggled so far."
Top-ranked American and 11th seed John Isner blasted his way into
the third round after firing 16 aces in a 6-3 7-6(1) win over
Australian qualifier Marino Matosevic.
Fifth seed Milos Raonic of Canada made light work of American wild
card Robby Ginepri 6-2 6-2 but ninth seed Ernests Gulbis saw his
tournament end at the hands of American Steve Johnson 6-4 6-4.
Other seeds to survive included Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Fabio
Fognini and Tommy Robredo.
(Reporting by Steve Keating and Ben Everill; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
