Roger Federer’s seemingly unstoppable season continued in his first match at the 2017 Miami Masters, as the Swiss veteran defeated Frances Tiafoe 7-6, 6-3 in the third round.
Tiafoe had defeated Russian Konstantin Kravchuk in the first round, and the young American managed to stay the course with Federer until a tie break. Neither man faced a break point in the first set, but Federer was the more dominant, holding with ease with the exception of a thirty hold just before the tie break.
Federer immdiately took the early mini-break and never looked back, earning another mini-break at 6-2, and sealing a third to take the opening set.
Tiafoe to his credit managed a break to fifteen to start the second set, but was immediately pegged back. Federer then broke for 4-2 and cruised through the rest of his service games.
It was a good tournament for Tiafoe, who will boost his ranking after qualifying and reaching the second round. Federer moves into the third round, where he will face the winner of the match between Juan Martin del Potro and Robin Haase. Federer and del Potro have a history of great matches. Federer prevailed in an epic Olympics semi-final in London, and defeated the Argentine in a five set semi en route to his lone Roland Garros title in 2009. Del Potro won his only grand slam title against Federer in the US Open final in 2009.
Stan Wawrinka was another winner as the top seed defeated Horacio Zeballos to move forward to a meeting with Malek Jaziri, who won a tight match against 31st seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. 18th seed John Isner earned a welcome win, edging Thomas Bellucci 7-5, 7-6.
27th seed David Ferrer’s season continues to be worrying, as the veteran Spaniard lost to Diego Schwartzmann of Argentina. Ferrer has not won a match since defeating Ernesto Escobedo in the second round of the Australian Open. David Goffin recovered from dropping his opening service game to defeat qualifier Darian King 7-5, 6-1. The 8th seed will face Schwartzmann next.
