Federer wins in 53 minutes to advance in Basel in 1,500th tour game

[October 22, 2019]    (Reuters) - Swiss top seed Roger Federer celebrated his 1,500th ATP match with a commanding 6-2 6-1 win over Germany's Peter Gojowczyk in the first round of the Swiss Indoors championship in Basel on Monday.

Roger Federer of Switzerland reacts during his match against Spain's Albert Ramos-Vinolas. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

Playing in his hometown, 20-times Grand Slam champion Federer barely broke sweat as he fired 12 aces and won 82% of his first service points, wrapping up the encounter against the hapless German qualifier in 53 minutes.

Gojowczyk, ranked 112th in the world, was broken five times while 38-year-old Federer dropped serve once in the contest.

It was a 21st consecutive win in Basel for the Swiss, who has won the title here nine times, and he used every inch of the court to set up 34 winners.

Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff also advanced in another short encounter that lasted only 61 minutes, firing a whopping 21 aces to beat Serbian youngster Miomir Kecmanovic 6-4 6-2 to advance.

Second seed Alexander Zverev and third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas play their respective first round matches on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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