Federer to rebuild on lucky escape

Events / Maxliu / 30 July 2008 / Leave a Comment

Federer stares into the abyss for the second time in successive tournaments before coming back to win. But Nadal is favourite for the Cincinnati Masters.

Top seed Roger Federer survived a major scare at the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday, defeating Robby Ginepri in a hard-fought second round encounter.

The Swiss star struggled against the unseeded American but was able to prevail 6-7 7-6 6-0.
After a defeat to Gilles Simon in the second round at the Rogers Cup in Toronto last week, Federer faced the possibility of losing his number one ranking for the first time in 234 weeks if he fell to Ginepri, who is ranked 64th in the world.

Federer was keen to put a positive spin on his victory, saying: "This is maybe exactly the match I needed after my loss last week.

"Again, today I almost lost a match I should never have lost. So to come through and turn the match around was great and hopefully I can build on it."

Punters appear not to share the World Number One's confidence. He has risen to [3.4] to win the Cincinnati Masters, falling behind Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal who is now favourite at [2.54] in the winners market. Third seed Novak Djokovic is [5.5].

Listen to the rest of the interview with Roger Federer here.