Roger Federer made a winning start to his Monte-Carlo campaign with a 6-3 6-4 win in his fourth head-to-head match against Spaniard Guillermo Garcia Lopez. The 17-time Grand Slam champion, who made his come-back to the court after undergoing arthrostopic surgery on his left knee for a meniscus tear at the end of January following his Australian Open semifinal against Novak Djokovic. Federer played a solid match converting three of his four break point chances but he dropped his serve for the first and only time in the match as he was serving for the match at 6-3 5-1.
The first set went on serve until the sixth game when Federer converted his only break point chance for 4-2 as Garcia Lopez made two double faults and missed a backhand.
The Swiss legend hit a topspin backhand winner down the line for deuce when he faced a second break point before hitting an ace to back up the break for 5-2. He hit two aces to earn three set points before sealing the 33-minute first set when Garcia Lopez sailed his forehand.
Federer got a double break in the third game for 2-1 with an inside-out forehand return and in the fifth game to love for 4-1 with a one-handed return winner. Federer won 20 of the last 24 points to cruise to a 5-1 lead in the second set but Garcia Lopez got one of the breaks back to love at 1-5 with a backhand pass as Federer was serving for the match. Garcia Lopez won three consecutive games to claw his way back to 4-5 but Federer held his serve to seal the win 6-4 at the second time of asking with a backhand down the line after 1 hour and 14 minutes. The Basel star has extended his win-loss record against Garcia Lopez to 4-0.
Federer, who reached the Monte-Carlo final four times in his career finishing runner-up from 2006 to 208 to Rafa Nadal and in 2014 to Stan Wawrinka, will face either Jeremy Chardy or Roberto Bautista Agut in the third round. Roger Express has scored the 1068th win of his career
The Swiss Maestro is making his 13th appearance in Monte-Carlo but he never won this tournament. It is one of the two elusive Masters 1000 titles missing in his impressive trophy cabinet alongside the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome.
“It was close in the beginning, then I was able to go on a roll. Points were cut short by virtue of me serving better and returning better. At the end I had to serve for it. I was excited and tense in the beginning just because it’s first round. It’s my first match back. It was nice to go through all these emotions”, said Federer.
