Federer survives Fritz challenge in Stuttgart

Swiss icon Roger Federer achieved his first victory over United States’ Taylor Fritz at the Stuttgart tennis tournament here on Thursday.

The 22-year-old said that beating an injured Federer a month ago on clay in Rome meant nothing.

The Swiss had not played in more than a month after dealing with a back issue – and the 17-time grand slam victor, looked like a player just getting back from injury.

The two players then showed off some stunning serving as they both held easily, barely giving up a single opportunity as the match moved towards an inevitable second tie-break.

“It was very hard, just as I knew before the match”, Federer said.

The Russian took the opening set, but Thiem battled back to complete a 3-6 6-4 7-5 win, reaching another semi-final following his appearance in the last four at the French Open.

“Two matches in a row, it’s attractive right now”, said the 34-year-old, who beat American teenager Taylor Fritz 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the previous round on Thursday.

The Artful Roger would be able to get a late break and is serving for the match — and seals victory with a blistering cross-court backhand victor.

“It was Federer (out there), but I wasn’t afraid to try and take the match”.

The 32-year-old German can take encouragement from this tournament; after coming through qualifying he beat sixth seed Viktor Troicki to reach the quarter-finals. But this is only my first grass week and I have to deal with that and my wrist recovery. Roger handled the pressure better, winning all the points on his serve and making 3 mini breaks in Florian’s 4 services to win it 7-2.

Thiem now stands 4-6 on grass as he scored his first back-to-back wins on the lawns with 11 aces. “But grass is different for me”.

Second set and Millman facing triple break point, and unfortunately he slips on this point, as the former U-S Open champ fires a victor into the open court and grabs a 5-4 lead. After 3 easy holds (15 from the start of the match) there was finally time to see some problems for the server, as Simon faced a break point in game 4.

Seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber beat qualifier Radek Stepanek 6-4, 7-5 and will face Juan Martin del Potro in the other semifinal.