Halle Westfalen, Germany // Roger Federer got his bid for a ninth Halle grasscourt title off to a winning start on Wednesday with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Germany's world No 88 Jan-Lennard Struff.
The top seed and world No 3 will face Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri, ranked 64, for a place in the last eight, as he steps up his bid for another tilt at the Wimbledon title.
“It was hard to find a rhythm today. He took the ball early, went for a lot on the forehand, backhand. He has a big serve, especially the first one,” Federer said.
“So then you go back to basics, you focus on your own serve. I thought I did that very well. He never really had chances on my own serve, so that was comforting.”
The 34-year-old Federer, who has now won 52 matches in his Halle career, has yet to win a title in 2016, his longest drought to start a year since he went title-less in 2000.
Related: 'I can play better' says Roger Federer after falling to Dominic Thiem in Stuttgart semi-finals
But Wednesday’s tie was just his 19th match of the season after he struggled with a back injury and endured knee surgery in February.
His injury woes forced him to skip the French Open, ending his record run of 65 successive Grand Slam appearances stretching back to 1999.
Last week, 17-time major winner Federer made the semi-finals of the Stuttgart grasscourt event, where he lost to Dominic Thiem, who went on to take the title.
Later this month, Federer will begin his bid for an eighth Wimbledon title when the third Grand Slam tournament of the season starts on June 27.
“I feel after the first round, after having played last week, actually maybe something is really possible here,” added Federer.
“I don’t want to get too carried away but I feel like if I serve the way I did today and I’m able to step it up just a little bit on the return from the baseline, all of a sudden I’m dangerous for anybody.
“We’ll see how it goes. But I take one match at a time and I hope just to keep on playing a bit better match by match.”
Japan’s world No 6 Kei Nishikori suffered a pre-Wimbledon blow when he was forced to pull out of the Halle tournament with a rib injury.
Nishikori, seeded two in Germany behind Federer and a semi-finalist in 2014 and 2015, was to play Florian Mayer, who was given a walkover into the quarter-finals.
“I’m very sad to not be able to go on playing,” said Nishikori, whose status for Wimbledon is not yet certain.
German teenager Alexander Zverev made the quarter-finals when compatriot Benjamin Becker, 16 years his senior, withdrew with an injury at 7-5, 3-0 down.
Zverev will next meet Cypriot veteran Marco Baghdatis who put out Dustin Brown, also of Germany, 7-5, 7-6.
Philipp Kohlschreiber, the Stuttgart runner-up, enjoyed a 6-2, 7-6 win over Spanish clay courter Marcel Granollers.
Milos Raonic makes winning start with coach John McEnroe
London // Milos Raonic made a winning start under coach John McEnroe as the Canadian third seed fought back to beat Australia’s Nick Kyrgios 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 at Queen’s Club on Wednesday.
Raonic hired American legend McEnroe as his new coach earlier this month and the pair are working together for the first time at the Wimbledon warm-up event in London.
McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, has been putting Raonic through his paces on the practice courts at Queen’s for several days and the early returns on their relationship look promising as the world number nine subdued the dangerous Kyrgios in a rain-interrupted first-round tie.
Raonic will face Czech world number 68 Jiri Vesely for a place in the quarter-finals.
Juan Martin del Potro’s decision to skip the French Open in favour of preparing for the grass season backfired as the Argentine was beaten 7-6, 6-4 by American seventh seed John Isner.
Croatia’s Marin Cilic, a former Queen’s and US Open champion, defeated Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-2 to book a quarter-final against American Steve Johnson, who beat France’s Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
British wildcard Kyle Edmund enjoyed the best win of his promising career as he defeated French world number 18 Gilles Simon 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
South Africa-born Edmund is ranked 85 and the 21-year-old’s reward for shocking the eighth seed is a second-round meeting with France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu, who defeated British wildcard Daniel Evans 7-6, 6-7, 6-3.
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