Olympics: Federer cruises into round two in Beijing

Monday, 11 August 2008

BEIJING - Top seed Roger Federer opened his Olympic campaign with a straightforward 6-4, 6-2 win over Russia's Dmitry Tursunov on Monday.

The Swiss converted his first break point at 1-1 in the first set and broke twice in the second to complete an easy victory in one hour and five minutes.

Federer, who is now 3-0 against Tursunov, is chasing his first Olympic medal after finishing fourth in 2000 and winning just one match four years ago.

He is also bidding to recover the top world ranking which he will yield to Rafael Nadal on August 18 – the day after the final – after a record 235 weeks.

Federer, who turned 27 on the Friday, the day of the opening ceremony, will face either Lee Hyung-taik or Rafael Arevalo in the second round.

"My goal is to try to get number one ranking back," he said. "I need to play well again. I need to win the big matches. That's what I'm looking at at the moment."

He insisted he wouldn't "freak out" over his losses this season and said he was hatching plans to spend up to 15 years in the top 10.

"You can't keep your ranking forever. I think you have to have a different approach, see what's the next step.

"What I don't like to do because you don't play so well is freak out and have emergency meetings. That's not going to happen."

Federer lost the French Open and Wimbledon finals to Nadal and has since fallen to Gilles Simon and Ivo Karlovic. He said he was reappraising his career to remain competitive well into his thirties.

"Being at the top doesn't mean number one in the world," he said. "It can mean deep into Grand Slams, you know, being in the top five, top 10 for, whatever, 10 years, 15 years, just be up there and having a shot at Grand Slams."

He added that the Olympics had made it a difficult year with his usual routine disrupted.

"I'm not criticising. It's just a fact. With the Olympic Games, everything shifted. It made it really hard for us to have proper preparations," he said.

Nadal, 22, was taken to a deciding third set by the 71st-ranked Starace before winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Federer has the kinder draw with Nadal facing the prospect of matches against Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic before the final.

The Swiss said his confidence was coming back after last month's shock defeats to Simon and Karlovic.

"You start to doubt yourself just a touch, even though I felt like I was playing well, moving well," he said.

"It's just maybe for me a matter of just getting a bit more time on the hard courts."