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Federer cruises into 3rd round: Faces German Jan Lennard Struff

By Keshav Gopalan

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 04: Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates match point against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia during their Men's Singles second round match on day three of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 04: Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrates match point against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia during their Men's Singles second round match on day three of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /
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Roger Federer cruised into the 3rd round at the All England Club, beating Lukas Lacko 6-4, 6-4, 6-1. He now faces Jan-Lennard Struff in a rematch of their 2nd round meeting in the Australian Open this year. Struff, coming off of a tiring 5 setter against Ivo Karlovic which stretched to 13-11 in the decider, will have to bring his A-game to pose a threat to Federer, who seems to be on track to defend his 8th Wimbledon title.

Sublime Serve and great performance

Federer’s serve has been on fire since his opening week in the grass in Stuttgart. The 36-year-old Swiss hammered 16 aces in his 2nd round encounter against the Slovak player. His placement remained pristine.

His serve wasn’t the only shot on fire today. Federer hit 48 winners and only hit 11 unforced errors. He converted 5 break points and won 93% of his first service points.

A key tactical shift is that Federer is mixing things up very well in comparison to Halle and Stuttgart, where he was more prone to hitting flat or topspin shots. However, Federer wasn’t as aggressive as he was against Lajovic, hesitating from moving towards the net on several occasions.

Struff could be a tricky matchup

Jan Lennard Struff is an aggressive player who is picking up steam in the grass of Wimbledon. In his match against Federer in the Australian Open, the German played aggressively, approaching the net on several of his service games and forcing Federer to shift tactics. An important thing that one can notice is that Federer was playing much more aggressively in that match. This same aggression seems to be missing, and while Federer could come up with a new tactic (especially since its grass), it seems like Struff could prove to be a challenging matchup.

What do you think? Can Federer pull off another straight-set victory?

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