Roger Federer has been defeated by Daniel Brands of Germany in the opening round of Credit Agricole Suisse Open. Brands won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-4.
This was the second shocking defeat for Federer in the last couple of months. Before this, he had been knocked out from the second round of the Wimbledon Championships by a Ukrainian qualifier Sergiy Stakhovsky.
In the post match interview, Federer said, “I couldn’t cash in when the opportunities came my way. I played inconsistent tennis. He was very good on his serve and I couldn’t play my return shots well.”
In the opening set, both the players held their serve in the first 5 games and at the end of the 5th game, Brands had a lead of 3-2.
The German player got a breakthrough in the 6th game and then, by winning his next service game, he enhanced his lead to 5-2.
Federer reduced Brands’ lead by serving out the next game, but, he couldn’t prevent the German player from sealing the set. With a serve hold in the 9th game, Brands wrapped up the set.
In the second set, Brands managed to sneak a breakthrough in the very first game and then, held his serve in the next game to get ahead by 2-0. The next 7 games went with the serve and at the end of the 9th game; the score was 5-4 in the favour of Brands.
The German player broke Federer’s serve again in the 10th game and the match was over.
Talking to the reporters after winning the match, Brands said, “It obviously feels great to secure victory against someone like Roger. I think I didn’t make too many mistakes on my serve today. I was just trying to keep things simple.”