Mercedes Cup 2016: Thursday Tennis Scores, Results, Latest Schedule
Roger Federer had to work hard to confirm a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over American teenager Taylor Fritz in the second round of the 2016 Mercedes Cup on Thursday after their match had been suspended due to rain on Wednesday.
Continuing at 4-3 ahead in his first match since missing the French Open through injury, Federer sealed the opener with some impressive serving. But he was then forced back to 1-1 before edging the decider to set up a quarter-final clash with German Florian Mayer in Stuttgart, Germany.
Third seed Dominic Thiem also booked a last-eight spot on Thursday with a gruelling straight-sets win over Australia's Sam Groth, while Jan-Lennard Struff was dumped out by fourth seed Gilles Simon.
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Here's a look at all of Thursday's results:
| Result | Score |
| (1) Roger Federer bt. Taylor Fritz | 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 |
| (3) Dominic Thiem bt. Sam Groth | 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) |
| Mikhail Youzhny bt. Sergiy Stakhovsky | 6-3, 7-6 (1) |
| (4) Gilles Simon bt. Jan-Lennard Struff | 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 |
| (2) Marin Cilic vs. Radek Stepanek | |
| John Millman vs. Juan Martin del Potro |
For the updated schedule, visit the Pro Tennis Live app.
Thursday Recap
Federer was supreme in moving two games ahead when he and Fritz returned to the court. Some missile serves and one beautifully delicate drop shot saw him to 5-3 ahead in just a couple of minutes.
The world No. 3 then earned a pair of set points in Fritz's next service game, but the 18-year-old showed impressive composure to save them and move to 5-4 behind.
He could not regain parity, though, despite forcing his first break point of the match, and Federer inevitably claimed the opening set to take control, per Live Tennis:
"#Federer saves a BP and takes the opening set 6-4. Can #Fritz rebound? Watch & bet at https://t.co/txueA5UFXZ pic.twitter.com/CUvm4rJDvG
— Live Tennis (@livetennis) June 9, 2016"
The Swiss legend's level dropped somewhat in the second set, and he was not given a chance to break at any point by Fritz, who served brilliantly.
Meanwhile, Federer made a number of errors to give the American a sniff of a chance and, having got to 6-5 ahead, Fritz finally took his fourth set point after the former world No. 1 had come back from 0-40 down, per ESPN Tennis:
"18-year-old Taylor Fritz breaks 34-year-old Roger Federer to take the second set 7-5 and force a third in Stuttgart.
— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) June 9, 2016"
The youngster's serve and fantastic forehand continued to swing as he went toe-to-toe with Federer to reach 4-4, but he finally wavered in the ninth game of the third, and the Swiss star took the break to serve for the set.
He duly claimed the match in fine fashion with a trademark purring backhand and a couple of aces to take the match in 100 minutes.
Only a single break point was offered up by either player during Groth and Thiem's tight encounter, and that was saved by the Australian in the second set.
The world No. 7 won in two sets, but Groth made him work extremely hard, and it was Thiem's cool in the two tiebreaks that made the difference.
Despite their parity in the sets proper, Groth was outplayed in both tiebreakers as he lost 7-3 and 7-2 to be downed in just over 90 minutes.
The 22-year-old Thiem will now face Mikhail Youzhny in the next round—Youzhny beat Sergiy Stakhovsky in straight sets on Thursday—as he continues a stellar 2016 season.
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