TENNIS ATP Rome – Jeremy Chardy took an upset win over Roger Federer in three sets with 1-6 6-3 7-6(6) in tough blustery conditions. Chardy saved a match point at 6-5 in the tie-break of the decisive set. Andy Murray opened his Rome campaign with a convincing 6-2 7-5 win over Marcel Granollers in a second round match held in tricky windy conditions. Diego Sampaolo
Interviews, results, order of play, draws of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome
Federer, who reached the final last year, could lose the fourth place in the Ranking if David Ferrer gets through to the semifinal.
Federer met Chardy for the second time in their careers. Earlier this year Federer beat Chardy in three sets in Brisbane.
Federer played his first match since the birth of twins Leo and Lenny last week.
Federer was in full control of the match in the first set where he broke serve twice to win the opener with 6-1 in just 20 minutes.
Chardy turned around the match and broke serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead en route to clinching the second set with 6-3. Federer earned two break back chances at 2-4 15-40 but Chardy saved them to go up 5-2 before forcing the match to the third set.
Federer bounced back from 2-4 down to force the decider to the third set. The World Number 4 held a match point at 6-5 after Chardy committed a double fault. Chardy saved a match point by hitting a cross court forehand pass to draw level to 6-6. Chardy converted his first match point to take the tie-break with 8-6 as Federer hit a service return long.
The Frenchman won his first match against a top-10 player since he beat Juan Martin Del Potro in the third round at the 2013 Australian Open
Federer committed 43 unforced errors (20 in the second set) to Chardy’s.
Rome remains an elusive tournament for Federer who lost three finals in 2003 losing to Felix Mantilla and twice to Rafael Nadal in 2006 (in a memorable five-set match) and 2013.
Chardy, who has a 16-11 record this year, will take on Ivan Dodig who beat Lukas Rosol in straight sets with 6-1 6-2.
Murray vs Granollers 6-2 7-5
Andy Murray opened his Rome campaign with a convincing 6-2 7-5 win over Marcel Granollers in a second round match held in tricky windy conditions.
Murray and Granollers met for the second time at the Foro Italico twelve months ago when the Scotsman was forced to withdraw at the same stage of the tournament after the first set due to back injury.
This time it was a different story for Murray who dealt better with the blustery conditions. In the first set he won 90 percent of his first serve points and made just nine unforced errors. The Dunblane star won four games in a row from 2-2 in the opener to clinch it with 6-2
Murray dropped serve in the opening game of the second set but he won a 36-shot rally at 30-all in the second game to draw level to 1-1. The Scotsman won 15 points in a row on serve before getting a crucial break in the 12th game to close out the match with 7-5
Murray, who will turn 27 on Thursday, will take on Jurgen Melzer who overcame Croatian Marin Cilic in three sets with 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3.
Murray is still searching a new coach after splittimg from Ivan Lendl last March less than two weeks before the start of the Roland Garros.
“It was very windy, also the sun was coming round so that was in your eyes and so was the dust from the court. It was very touugh to get any real depth on the ball and when I had the wind with me, I gave the ball extra spin to control it. It was extremely blustery”, said Murray.
