Roger Federer opens US hard-court season with win at Cincinnati Masters

Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates his win over Phillip Kohlschreiber of Germany at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Getty Images)

Former world number one Roger Federer kicked-off his campaign at the Western and Southern Masters 1000 tournament at Cincinnati with a comfortable 6-3 7-6 (7) win over Philip Kohlschreiber of Germany to move into the third round.

Federer pulled out of last week’s Rogers Cup Masters 1000 event in Montreal citing soreness in his back. This was after the Swiss had suffered a series of early round exits to lower ranked opponents, starting at Wimbledon, where he lost in second round to Sergiy Stakhovsky.

This is Federer’s first tournament on the North American hard-court season.

“It was important to play a clean match,” Federer told reporters. “I had a few tough weeks, months behind me, I was happy to play a clean match.”

“I told myself I was not going to come back until I felt no pain in my back. Eventually I started to work out very hard.”

“It is a tournament I have always played in lead up to the US Open, I like it here. I love the calmness of this place.” added Federer, who is a five-time champion at Cincinnati.

Milos Raonic, fresh from his fine run at his home tournament in Montreal where he finished as the runner-up, had some early struggles, but battled back to beat American Jack Sock 3-6 6-4 6-3. Raonic became the first Canadian to crack the top ten of the world rankings after his fine display last week.

Third seed David Ferrer of Spain also had to work hard to earn his place in the third round against another American in Ryan Harrison, winning 7-6 (5) 3-6 6-4. Harrison was informed just before the match started that he had been given a wild card for the US Open as well.

Federer’s compatriot, ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka had a smooth passage into the second round with a 6-3 6-4 win over Italian Andreas Seppi, while 11th seed German veteran Tommy Haas also made it through comfortably with a 6-4 6-4 win over South African Kevin Anderson.

However, Tenth seed Kei Nishikori of Japan lost 4-6 6-7 (4) to Spain’s left-handed Feliciano Lopez. Canadian Vasek Pospisil, who narrowly lost out on a place in the final in Montreal after a tense semi-final loss to Raonic, was leading 15th seed Gilles Simon 6-3 1-1, when the Frenchman retired with a hip strain.

Other results:

Round 2

Julien Benneteau (France) beat Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-2 5-7 7-6(4)

Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Brian Baker (U.S.) 6-3 6-2

Round 1

Benjamin Becker (Germany) beat Pablo Andujar (Spain) 6-1 6-4

Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) 7-5 6-3

John Isner (U.S.) beat Florian Mayer (Germany) 6-3 6-4

Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin (France) 6-3 6-4

Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Thomaz Bellucci (Brazil) 6-7(6) 7-6(7) 6-2

Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Benoit Paire (France) 7-6(8) 6-3