Federer eases into third round

Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 25 March 2007 / Leave a Comment

Betfair punters who are backing Roger Federer to return to winning ways will have taken great delight in seeing the World Number one see off Sam Querrey 6-4 6-3 in the Miami Masters to advance through to the third round.

In his first match since his 41-game winning streak came to an end against Guillermo Canas a fortnight ago, Federer hit 26 winners as he defeated the US wild-card in straight sets.

The Swiss ace broke Querrey's serve in the seventh game in the first set, on his sixth break point, and that proved to be a huge turning point in the match as the American struggled to recover.

After the match, Federer, who is 1.5 in the outright winner market, said he was delighted with the victory, but was just relieved that he had got back to winning ways.

He said: "I'm just happy I came through, because I didn't know what to expect.
"I didn't know my opponent. I've known since a long time when I'm going to play, so (there were) kind of a bit of expectations, too, from the fans and everybody."

Federer is now set to take on the winner of the second round tie between Italy's Potito Starace and Spaniard Nicolas Almagro in the third round and, barring a major shock, he may then get the chance to gain revenge against Canas in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The Argentinian defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 in their second round match but Canas is now being made a slight outsider at 2.1 to progress in his third-round showdown against French 15th seed Richard Gasquet (1.82).