TENNIS FRENCH OPEN – Roger Federer began his campaign for a possible 18th major title and 2nd French Open crown on the first Sunday at Roland Garros. The Swiss beat Lukas Lacko 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the 2014 Roland Garros
Roger Federer began his campaign for a possible 18th major title and 2nd French Open crown on the first Sunday at Roland Garros. This is Federer’s 58th consecutive major appearance, an all-time record. However, at times he appeared to be the least experience player on court with a rather frazzled appearance though the scoreline over Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-4 6-2 would not imply as such. Federer just looked as though he did not appreciate the early start time to his major effort. It could also be that his mind are on his new-born sons Leo and Lenny Federer who have not travelled with him to Paris. Nonetheless, Federer took care of business.
Whatever, the distraction during the match, Federer served like a boss as he never faced break point through 3 sets of competitive tennis. Lacko lost his last 10 matches on clay so he did not have a lot of confidence coming into this match but he made things interesting for the Swiss. Federer started off flat and being down 1-2, he then reeled off 5 straight games to take the set 6-2 in 24 minutes. Federer had an early point in the 2nd set but again seemed distracted and was not able to capitalize. He broke in the 6th game of the set for a 4-2 lead. Lacko narrowly escaped being broken to have Federer for the set 5-2 and managed a respectable 4-6 set.
Federer got his act together in the 3rd set and had a 5-1 lead before Lacko knew what was going on. Federer closed out the match at love 6-2 6-4 6-2. The Swiss won 89% of his first serve points and 76% of his 2nd serves. Lacko was consistent winning 56% of his first serve and 50% of his 2nd serves. The Slovakian could only garnered 13 winners to the 40 from the Swiss. Being average will not get the job done against the likes of Federer.
