Roger Federer has set up a third round clash with Cameron Norrie after a 7-6(1) 6-1 6-4 win over Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon.
The eight-time champion overcame a tough opening set to beat Gasquet for the 19th time in his career.
Next up for Federer will be 29th seed Cameron Norrie after the Brit defeated Alex Bolt in straight sets.
It was a competitive start to the match as both players had early chances to break with the Frenchman creating three break points.
But Federer remained firm with some effective patterns of play, hitting winners into the empty spaces of the court.
Gasquet continued to serve well throughout the first set as he tested Federer’s ability to dictate the tempo of the match.
Despite finding relative success on the baseline, Gasquet couldn’t overpower Federer consistently enough to cause damage.
While the 20-time grand slam champion also served accurately and did what was necessary in the first set, slowly moving through the gears.
There was no breakthrough from either player as the first set went to a tiebreak.
That’s when Federer raised his level as he only dropped one point in the tiebreak playing some free-flowing tennis.
After saving a break point in the opening game of the second set, Federer continued to go to work on the return punishing any short groundstrokes from Gasquet.
A 5-0 lead was quickly gained by the world number eight as it became quickly evident why the head-to-head was so one sided.
Losing the sixth game didn’t derail the Swiss as he took a two sets to love lead in 1 hour and 18 minutes.
In the third there was a bigger test from Gasquet as he started to construct efficient and effective shots on his backhand side.
However there was a sense of inevitability about the destination of this match and in the seventh game that was confirmed as Federer sealed the brutal blow.
On his second match point Federer sealed a straight sets victory and a much improved performance from his first round match.
Next for Federer will be 29th seed Cameron Norrie on Saturday.
