Mutua Madrid Open: Federer fluent as ever; Murray battles past Mayer

Roger Federer was smooth as silk on his return to the courts after a self-imposed hiatus, which lasted nearly eight weeks. The emperor of aesthetic magnificence was an assured 6-3, 6-3 winner over Radek Stepanek at the Mutua Madrid Open. Andy Murray was stretched to the limit by Florian Mayer, but the Scot prevailed in two tense tie-breakers – 7-6(11), 7-6(3) in two hours and six minutes to record his 400th career victory.

Federer, the defending champion, got off to a rousing start. The Swiss maestro strode out purposefully to clinch the first game with four service winners. It almost felt like he was never away. The first break point of the match came in the fourth game, when Stepanek sliced his backhand outside the court. The Swiss only had to watch, as the Czech veteran sailed a forehand long this time to gift the break.

The 34 year old troubled Federer in the very next game, but the world No.2 saved both break points to consolidate the break at 4-1. Stepanek held to 5-3 with an ace, forcing Federer to serve out the set. The maestro over cooked a backhand to squander the first opportunity, but Stepanek responded with a similar error to hand the set to the Swiss player.

Roger was staring an immediate bounty at the start of the second set, but Stepanek recovered from 0-40 to somehow hold serve. The 48^th ranked Czech committed hara-kiri in the third game, when he made four straight errors from 40-15 to surrender the break. The match seemed all but over, when Stepanek courted the net twice in a row with his backhand. Federer was only to serve out the match with a comfortable 5-2 cushion.

But as has happened so often in the recent past, Roger struggled at the finish line in an extended eighth game that needed twenty points to settle the score. And it ended in favour of the Czech as he clung to slim hopes after recovering one of the two breaks at 5-3 in the second set. Stepanek though undid the good work, starting the ninth game with a double fault.

He was quickly down 0-40, and Stepanek only extended his stay on court by staving off the first two points. He slumped to defeat when a backhand down the line sailed wide to help Federer into the third round. “I didn’t think I played incredible, but that’s not what I was expecting myself to do here,” said an assured Federer.

“So I’m very happy with how things went today. Stepanek is a player who can cause a lot of difficulties in the game,” added the world No.2. “He has caused me difficulties in the past. Today that wasn’t the case. I thought I was pretty much in control.” Federer converted four of ten break points and struck 23 winners, but he was also aided by as many as 30 unforced errors from his struggling opponent.

It took two entertaining sets of tennis to determine the winner between Murray and Mayer, but it seemed like they played all three. In the first set, Mayer was the only man to face break points – one in the fourth and two in the eighth – but the German saved each of them to force the tie-breaker.

Incredibly, Mayer squandered five set points even as both men stumbled on their serve. Murray wasted his first set point at 11-10 by throwing in a double fault, but a forehand cross court winner helped him eventually close out the first set after an hour and 10 minutes of riveting drama.

The match took a turn towards Mayer, who took advantage of a double fault from Murray to earn an early break and run up a 3-0 lead in the second set. But in a knuckle headed seventh game, Mayer gifted back the initiative when he made four straight unforced errors to surrender the valuable break. Mayer faced two more break points in the eleventh game, but held on to force a second breaker.

The German offered three mini-breaks and Murray helped himself to a commanding 6-2 lead. A forehand cross court winner from the German saved the first, but a thumping forehand down the line winner clinched the deal in favour of Murray. Murray had 34 winners including six aces, whilst Mayer nullified an impressive 12 aces by making 27 unforced errors. At times Murray seemed to clutch at his back, but we do not have further insight. One can only hope that he is fine.

Murray will play Gilles Simon in the next round. The Frenchman defeated his compatriot Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 7-6(5) in the second round. The 19^th seeded Juan Monaco scored an early upset when he ousted Janko Tipsarevic 7-6(5), 6-3 to reach the third round. Meanwhile, Mikhail Youzhny defeated the form player Fabio Fognini 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(5).

The Oeiras champion, Stanislas Wawrinka had an easy 6-4, 6-4 victory over Marius Copil to advance to the round of 16. Daniel Gimeno-Traver upset the French player Richard Gasquet 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to cut short his preparations for the French Open. Tommy Haas seems to have gained with age – he proved too good for the Italian Andreas Seppi. The German veteran came through 6-1, 6-2 in just 52 minutes of dominant tennis.

Fernando Verdasco proved he could still stand the scrutiny of his countrymen with a brilliant 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(7) victory over Milos Raonic. Tommy Robredo stamped out Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 6-2 to book his place in the last 16. The pick of Wednesday’s matches is the contest between Jerzy Janowicz and Tomas Berdych. Rafael Nadal will also open his campaign against Benoit Paire.