Cincinnati (USA) (AFP)
Switzerland's Roger Federer, N.3 in the world and winner of 20 Grand Slam titles, was eliminated in the 8th finals of the Masters 1000 Cincinnati tournament by Russia's Andrey Rublev, 70th, 6-3, 6-4, on Thursday.
Federer, 38, was playing his first tournament since his memorable final at Wimbledon against Novak Djokovic of Serbia, N.1 World, and lost in the tie-break of the 5th set, after nearly five hours of play 7-6 (7 / 5), 1-6, 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 13-12 (7/3).
Federer, who has already been crowned in Ohio seven times, was picked cold by being 2-0 after losing his first faceoff. At 4-1, the 102-career Swiss champion was a bit seized and managed to score two more games before giving up the first set.
Rublev, 21, winner of his only career tournament at Umag in 2017, took Federer's first serve in the seventh game to lead 4-3, then 5-3. If the Swiss managed to retain his last serve, the young Russian, finalist in Hamburg this year, gave him no chance to return and concluded his first match after only 62 minutes of exchanges.
In the next round, Rublev will face the current man, his compatriot Daniil Medvedev, 8th world player and finalist in Washington and Montreal in the last two weeks. He was even more expeditious ahead of the German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-1.
© 2019 AFP