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Roger Federer had a scratchy start but he shook it off to oust France's Richard Gasquet in his Wimbledon second-round match on Thursday. Federer won 7-6 (1), 6-1, 6-4 to book himself a third-round encounter against home favorite Cameron Norrie.
The eight-time champion faced three break points in his very first service game but managed to hold on, before ultimately taking the opening set in the tiebreaker. Gasquet seemingly ran out of ideas after that, while Federer at the other end upped his game.
On that note, here are three talking points from Federer's win over Gasquet:
1) Roger Federer's serve saw a significant improvement from his match against Mannarino
Roger Federer's serve is arguably his biggest weapon. And he enjoyed a great deal of success on it against Richard Gasquet, winning 84% of his service points.
That number was significantly lower against Adrian Mannarino (74%), so the Swiss would be pleased with the improvement he showed on Thursday.
Federer struck 10 aces against Gasquet and didn't commit any double faults. Perhaps more importantly though, the 39-year-old didn't get broken a single time in the match; he saved all five break points that he faced.
Numbers aside, the Swiss found the corners with more ease against Gasquet than he did against Mannarino. Federer was also more accurate on his first serve, landing 65% of them compared to the 61% that he managed against Mannarino.
2) Roger Federer is no longer an error machine
Unforced errors have always been part and parcel of Roger Federer's game, given the amount of risk he takes with every shot. But they came close to costing him the match against Mannarino, where he coughed up 45 unforced errors.
The Swiss made amends in that respect against Richard Gasquet, committing only 26 unforced errors - out of which 13 came in the first set alone. Federer seems to be slowly but steadily finding his groove on grass.
That said, the 39-year-old did send a number of sliced returns into the net, even when he wasn't under much pressure. He certainly has some more cleaning up to do, and it remains to be seen whether he gets sharper in the next match.
3) Roger Federer got better as the match progressed
Given his age, Roger Federer knows he needs to win early-round matches quickly to give his body enough time to rest and recover. But after a 49-minute long first set, it seemed that Federer wouldn't get his wish on Thursday.
That was probably on his mind too, as the Swiss legend switched gears and tightened the screws early in the second set. He broke Gasquet's serve twice to set up a 5-0 lead, and ultimately pocketed the set in a mere 26 minutes.
The Frenchman offered a bit more resistance in the third set, but Federer was still able to win it in 36 minutes. The 39-year-old's strokes were flowing a lot more smoothly in the second half of the match than the first, which showed in the scoreline.
Federer spent a total of one hour and 51 minutes on court against Gasquet. He wouldn't mind that one bit going into Saturday's clash against Cameron Norrie, which is expected to be much longer.
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