Reuters

Tennis-Federer slogs previous Koepfer in late night time battle

PARIS (Reuters) -Roger Federer reached the final 16 of the French Open however wanted all of his combating qualities to scrap his well past Germany’s Dominik Koepfer on an empty and eerie Court docket Philippe Chatrier in Saturday’s night time match. The 39-year-old 20-time Grand Slam champion was ragged at occasions and lacked his normal zip in opposition to the tenacious Koepfer however the eighth seed slogged his approach to a 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 7-6(4) 7-5 victory with the time approaching 1am native time. It was Federer’s first style of a Grand Slam match performed with out followers, courtesy of Paris’s 9pm COVID-19 curfew, and it was not an expertise he appeared to get pleasure from as he was given a torrid time by the 27-year-old left-hander.