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Federer beats Johansson
Top seed Roger Federer advanced to the final of the Toronto Masters Series in Canada on Saturday.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:04 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Toronto:
Roger Federer is attempting to become the first player to win eight ATP titles in a season since Thomas Muster won 12 tournaments in 1995. Facing former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, the Swiss star was playing his fifth match in as many days, but still showed the Swede what he was capable of from the back of the court. Continuing his recovery from a serious knee injury that kept him out of action last year, Johansson started to return fire from the baseline with great effect. With his double-handed backhand hitting the mark, the first set soon went the way of the underdog. Federer was not at his best in the first set and needed to find something special, and, as so often is the case for the world number one, he found it on the backhand. Unbeaten run With his touch returning, the Toronto crowd was about to see the Swiss at his sublime best, the shot-making getting better and better. The silky smooth right hander was in control by the time the match went into a third set, moving his opponent at will and finishing with precision. In the end the kill came quickly, the third set lasted just 20 minutes before Federer wrapped up a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. "I think what happened today was that Thomas actually played a very good opening set and I got a bad start and really I had to force myself today to play well and the other days I would say that it came very natural and that was the difference," said Feeder His unbeaten run now stands at 22 matches. Federer's run of 22 matches is the longest since Pete Sampras chalked up 24 consecutive victories in 1999. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis
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