Federer express shows no signs of slowing down

Saturday, 10 January 2015 04:35 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

BRISBANE (Reuters): Roger Federer sent a reminder to the young guns of men’s tennis that he is nowhere near close to riding quietly into the sunset when he romped to victory in just 39 minutes at the Brisbane International on Friday. The 33-year-old Swiss maestro produced a masterclass of shot-making as he thrashed Australian wildcard James Duckworth 6-0 6-1 to charge into the semi-finals of the Australian Open warm-up event. Federer’s amazing performance came just 24 hours after he struggled to see off John Millman, raising doubts about his form ahead of the first grand slam of the year.

Nishikori leads generation next into Brisbane semis

BRISBANE (Reuters): Japanese sensation Kei Nishikori led a trio of tennis young guns into the semi-finals of the Brisbane International on Friday, sending out another message that the next generation are getting ready to challenge the old guard. Nishikori, still on a high after reaching the final of last year’s U.S. Open, continued his impressive build-up to this month’s Australian Open when he demolished Bernard Tomic 6-0 6-4.

He was joined in the last four by Milos Raonic and GrigorDimitrov, another two up-and-comers tipped to challenge at the first grand slam of the season. Raonic rode his booming serve to a 7-6(5) 3-6 7-6(2) win over Australia’s Sam Groth to set up a mouth-watering semi-final clash against Nishikori. Dimitrov made light work of his quarter-final with Martin Klizan, defeating the Slovakian 6-3 6-4 to set up an encounter against either Roger Federer or James Duckworth in the last four. Raonic and Dimitrov both made the semi-finals at Wimbledon last year and while they stumbled against their more seasoned opponents they, along with Nishikori, have been earmarked as potential grand slam winners this year. Nishikori took less than an hour to brush past Tomic, who was also tipped for big things after reaching the quarters at Wimbledon as a teenager in 2011.