Federer Cruises In Montreal Opener

How many cakes did you receive on your last birthday? One? Maybe two? When you’re Roger Federer, birthday parties never ends.

Federer admitted he received five cakes prior to taking in a Coldplay concert at Montreal’s Bell Centre, where lead singer Chris Martin gave him a birthday shout out. The Swiss superstar reflected on a memorable 36th birthday after securing his place in the Coupe Rogers third round on Wednesday afternoon.

“The thing is that they are big cakes, and you have to eat them during the week,” said Federer, smiling. “It’s good I’m doing some sport this week.

“It was quite a calm day yesterday. I spent my day with my team [and] I just practised here for a while… Yesterday evening, we had a meal all together, and we went to see Coldplay. It was very nice, a very nice day.”

Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Lucas Pouille, Matthew Ebden and Nicholas Monroe also made the trip to watch the British rock band.

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Federer, who will reunite with his family at next week’s Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati next week, experienced no headache on Wednesday. Competing in Montreal for the first time in six years, he defeated Canadian wild card Peter Polansky 6-2, 6-1 in his first match since capturing his 19th Grand Slam championships crown at Wimbledon on 16 July.

The two-time former champion, in 2004 (d. Roddick) and 2006 (d. Gasquet), will next face American No. 15 seed Jack Sock or former World No. 3 David Ferrer, the 2014 semi-finalist, in the third round.

“I started the first set well. In the second set, I was able to put pressure on him and he helped me with somedouble faults, of course. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the match. The conditions were tough here in Montreal. There was a lot of wind today and it was fast. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the rhythm.

“But I was happy that I was very focused on my service games. I was aggressive. This is how I want to play for the whole week. Anyway, it’s a good start.”

Federer lost just three points on serve against World No. 117 Polansky in the 21-minute opener and won seven straight games from a 4-2 lead in the first set. After the match, Polansky collected up all the tennis balls and put them in his bag as a souvenir.

“The crowd support was great,” Federer added. “It wasn’t the closest match today. But they were there for Peter when he needed them and he hit good shots, when they realized he was struggling. I thought that was really nice.

“And for me, they were there every step of the way. So I felt that, as well, which is actually good to see… Maybe that’s also why I always put this as one of my favourite tournaments, favourite centre courts out there, because they show up in big numbers, they show up with excitement and passion. For us to play here, it’s very inspiring.” 

Second seed Federer is now 32-2 on the season, which includes an ATP World Tour leading five trophies, and with no Emirates ATP Rankings to defend will soon be in contention for a return to No. 1.

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