Swiss Federer reaches last eight

PARIS – World number two Roger Federer teetered on the brink of defeat before turning on the style to down Germany’s Tommy Haas 6-7 5-7 6-4 6-0 6-2 and reach the quarter-finals of the French Open yesterday.

The 27-year-old Swiss, chasing the only grand slam title to have eluded him, was two sets and 3-4 down facing a break point when he recovered to hold serve and went on to win eight games in a row.
‘Tommy played a great match, I struggled to get into the encounter,’ said the 13-times grand slam champion.
‘He was serving very well, first serve, second serve, I really had trouble returning. I just needed for him to play a bad game.
‘Winning a five-set match gives you a lot of information and it gives you more motivation for the next match,’ said Federer, who had also needed five sets to beat Haas in the last 16 at the 2006 Australian Open.
He broke in the fifth and seventh games of the decider and never looked back, wrapping up victory on his second match point after three hours seven minutes.
Federer, hot favourite to win the title after world number one and four-times champion Rafael Nadal was beaten on Sunday, will next face either France’s Gael Monfils or American Andy Roddick.
Asked who he would prefer to face, Federer grinned: ‘I’m 18-2 against Roddick so you can imagine who.’
It briefly seemed Federer would stroll past Haas as he won all his service games to love in the first set.
But things did not go his way in the tiebreak when he missed a couple of routine shots to let Haas take a 5-2 lead and the German wrapped up the set after 47 minutes. – Nampa-Reuters