By Chris Oddo | Tuesday June 19, 2018
Roger Federer defeated Aljaz Bedene to earn his 17th consecutive win on grass on Tuesday at Halle, Germany.
Photo Source: Alex Grimm/Getty
Roger Federer ran his run of consecutive wins on grass to 17 with a 6-3, 6-4 takedown of Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene on Tuesday at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.
The Swiss was his usual dominant self on his preferred surface, winning 41 of 49 points on serve and never facing a break point.
He converted a break in each set to get past Bedene in their second career meeting, and set up a second-round clash with France’s Benoit Paire.
The 9-time Halle champion improved to 169-24 lifetime on grass, and 60-6 lifetime at the Gerry Weber Open.
Federer owns a 6-0 lifetime edge over Paire. Paire defeated American Steve Johnson, 7-5, 7-6(5).
In other action on Day 2 in Halle, No.2-seeded and two-time runner-up Alexander Zverev was taken out by Borna Coric, 6-1, 6-4. The Croatian improved to 3-1 lifetime against Zverev and the scoreline would have been worse had Zverev not reeled off three games before Coric finally served the match out on his second opportunity.
19-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas earned his fifth Top-20 win of the season with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over No.5-seeded Lucas Pouille to set up a second-round clash with American Denis Kudla.
Florian Mayer (d. Gasquet), Karen Khachanov (d. Zverev), Andreas Seppi (d. Berrettini) and Philipp Kohlschreiber (d. Fucsovics, RET) also moved through on a busy Tuesday at Halle.