20-time Grand Slam Roger Federer

Roger Federer beat Britain’s Dan Evans in the Qatar Open in his comeback after 14 months due to injury.

The Swiss 20-time Grand Slam winner won 7-6 (10-8) 3-6 7-5 to reach the Qatar Open quarter-finals in Doha.

Federer had not played competitively since January 2020 after two knee surgeries and says he had not played pain-free.

After a tight first set, Evans won four successive points in the tie-break to lead 4-2.

But Federer fought back to level the scores before taking the set with a magnificent backhand cross-court pass.

Federer capitalized on a series of errors from Evans in the fourth game of the second set to break serve and move 3-1 ahead, before taking the set 6-3 to force a decider.

The deciding set was much closer and went with serve until the 12th game when Federer broke Evans’ serve for the first time in the match to seal victory in front of a socially distanced crowd at the Khalifa Tennis Complex.

Federer, a three-time winner of the event, will play Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili in the last eight.

[Source: BBC]