By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday August 13, 2019
Seven-time champion Roger Federer is off and running in Cincinnati.
The 38-year-old weathered an hour-long rain delay and rolled past Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Londero 6-3 6-4 on Tuesday evening to book his spot in the third round where wither Stan Wawrinka or Andrey Rublev awaits.
For Federer it was business as usual on the fast surface of the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. The Swiss dropped just 11 points on serve as he methodically picked apart Londero on a surface that the wild card has very little experience on.
But full credit to the Argentine, who rebounded from getting broken in his first service game and stayed with Federer for the remainder of the opening set.
"Conditions are fast," Federer said. "We barely had any rallies in the first set. It was just bang-bang tennis."
Londero is in the midst of a breakout season that saw him win his first title and reach the second week at Roland Garros on his Grand Slam debut. He showed much of what has made him a force on tour on Tuesday and Federer came away impressed.
"I liked what I saw," Federer said. "I think he's going to have a good career, you know. He's a good fighter. I saw especially a good fight from him against Rafa at the French Open. And even though he was down two sets to Love and a break and you think, well, you know, it's over, he kept believing and kept fighting. This is a quality I respect a lot, you know, in a player. That's why I knew it was going to be tough maybe today."
Londero was level with Federer at 2-all when the rains hit, and an hour later when they returned the Swiss showed his experience by breaking right off the bat for 3-2.
Londero found himself with his only break opportunity of the night in the next game but Federer handled it by executing an impromptu two-handed volley at the net for a drop shot winner for deuce. He won the next two points and was never threatened again.
The victory is Federer’s 47th against nine losses in Cincinnati. The Swiss is bidding to win the title in Ohio for the first time since 2015.