Tennis: Federer stays on course for record

Published on Thursday 3 September 2009 09:35

FIVE-TIMES champion Roger Federer held off a game challenge from Germany's Simon Greul to set up a US Open third-round match with Lleyton Hewitt.

Federer, in his first match under the lights in 2009 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, won the second-round match 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 but it was not a straightforward win as the world No.65 forced the top seed to play some top-drawer tennis earlier in the tournament than he is accustomed to.

"It's never easy, the first night session of the year here in New York and I saw him play a couple of times and he played really, really well so I knew it would be difficult," said Federer, who is attempting to emulate Bill Tilden – the 1920s six-time consecutive winner of the US National championship. Third seed Rafael Nadal made light work of his opening-round match, easing past Richard Gasquet of France in straight sets.

The World No.3 showed no signs of his recent fitness problems as he claimed a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory to set up a meeting with Nicolas Kiefer of Germany. Both players were returning from spells on the sidelines. Nadal has been out of action with knee troubles, while Gasquet recently served a two-and-a-half month ban after testing positive for a derivative of cocaine.

Nadal is seeded to meet No.2 Andy Murray in the semi-finals but the Scot may have to first get past sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro, who eased past Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in an all-Argentine clash late on in the Louis Armstrong Stadium.