Roger Federer beats Dusan Lajovic to reach Wimbeldon third round
WIMBLEDON, England — Roger Federer faced a tough first-set test before completing a 7-6 (0), 6-3, 6-2 second-round victory against Dusan Lajovic of Serbia at Wimbledon on Thursday.
After the match, the third-seeded Federer smiled and waved his racket at the crowd before heading to the locker room.
"I think I just struggled early on," Federer said. "I was feeling nerves for some reason. Not sure why. But, you know, I was able to come back in the set breaking at 2-Love. I think it was big for me."
Federer struggled with his serve in the first set, facing four break points in which his serve was broken once. By the final two sets, he was playing cleaner and never extended another service break opportunity to Lajovic in the 1 hour, 30 minute match.
"I think the courts were playing quite fast today because of the heat," Federer said. "Then I played a great breaker. I think from then on I never looked back. Got early breaks in sets 2 and 3 and was able to protect my serve in a good way."
On Tuesday, in his abbreviated 6-3, 3-0 first-round win over Ukraine's Alexandr Dogolopolov, Federer became only the third man since the ATP Tour started keeping statistical records to hit over 10,000 aces in his career. Federer trails the still active Ivo Karlovic of Croatia with 12,062 aces and the retired Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia with 10,131.
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Federer went into the encounter against the 79th-ranked Lajovic with 10,004 aces and added nine to that count on Thursday.
No other player in the Open Era has won as many Wimbledon matches at Federer, who now has an 86-11 win-loss record at this tournament, which he’s won seven times. Jimmy Connors held the previous record with 84 matches won at Wimbledon.
As is his usual style, Federer played the grass court warm-up event in Halle, Germany, winning that title for a ninth time in his career.
"I think in the third round I will feel better again," Federer said. "And it's weird how sometimes you can be way more nervous for a second round than, say, for a finals, believe it or not. It's like you wake up every day the same, and I'm happy I got through this one feeling the way I did, because in a way it's strange playing this way when you're so tense."