Roger Federer begins his Masters Series Madrid campaign with a straight-set win over Robin Soderling on Tuesday night. Next up for Federer is either James Blake or Ivo Karlovic. It got a little bit more difficult as the match progressed, but Roger Federer cruised past Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-5 in the second round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Masters on Wednesday night.
Federer needed just one hour and nine minutes to win his tournament opener, including just 20 minutes in the first frame of play.Federer was absolutely dominant in the opening set. He won the first five games of the match before Soderling finally held serve to get on the scoreboard at 1-5. Federer won 11 of 12 first-serve points and lost a mere five points in four service games.
Soderling was as hopeless on serve as Federer was in control. The world No. 23 won just one of seven second-serve points and was broken twice, losing the set in a brisk 20 minutes.Soderling slowly but surely became competitive, as both players took care of serve with relative ease en route to 2-2 in the second. The underdog Swede then led 40-0 before squandering three straight points. But he won the next two points to hold for 3-2 and that seemed to increase his confidence.
Soderling earned a 30-30 chance in Federer's next service game and Federer handed him the break with a forehand error followed by a double-fault. The second-ranked Swiss, however, got it right back with a backhand pass on his second break-point opportunity at 2-4.
Soderling lost serve again at 5-5, squandering a trio of game points before throwing it away with two consecutive forehand errors. Federer quickly closed out the match with a love service game and his 11th ace on match point.Federer finished with a solid ratio of 24 winners to 19 unforced errors. Soderling improved after a dismal first set, but still struck just 14 winners to 35 mistakes. Madrid's No. 2 seed awaits either James Blake, who beat him at the 2008 Summer Olympics, or 6'10'' Croat Ivo Karlovic.
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