French Open Day 1 - Classy Federer Has His Mojo Back

When Roger Federer left Roland Garros twelve months ago, he left with doubts whether he would ever add to his prestigious seventeen Grand Slam titles.

The Swiss’ straight sets defeat to Jo Wilfred Tsonga in last year’s French Open quarter final was seen by many as the start of the great man’s fall from grace and was followed by unforeseeable defeats to Sergiy Stakhovsky at Federer’s beloved  Wimbledon and Tommy Robredo at the US Open.

Federer took little time to reach the second round

But one year on from his defeat to Tsonga, Federer is back in Paris and at 32 years of age appears to have his mojo back. His first round victory over Slovakian Lukas Lacko was as routine as they come. In 84 minutes Federer struck 40 winners, 7 seven aces and dropped only 5 points on serve to win a one sided encounter 6-2 6-4 6-2.

His draw doesn’t look too bad either, next he will face qualifier Diego Sebastian Schwartzman and despite a potential semi-final with Novak Djokovic his route there appears more than achievable.

So what are the differences from last year? For starters he has appointed 6 time major champion and boyhood hero Stefan Edberg as his coach and has recently took time off the tour due to the birth of his second set of twins.

Really this was an ideal opening match for Federer, Lacko is a solid tour player ranked 87 in the world but he doesn’t have the weapons to really challenge those at the top of the game.

Unlike that incredible upset against Stakhovsky, this never felt like a match that Federer could possibly lose and like so many times in the past the Phillipe Chartrier crowd were left to admire the shear brilliance and class only Federer can bring to a tennis court.

The Swiss’ artistic shot making and calm demeanour was too much for Lacko who buckled in the fifth game of the match to hand Federer an early break of serve. Even then it was hard to see a way back for the Slovak, like Edberg, Federer approached the net on every opportunity and abruptly sailed into the distance.

Lacko never saw a break point on the Federer serve and can consider himself a little unlucky after his first round draw against Djokovic at the Australian Open in January.

For Federer this was a perfect way to start the only Grand Slam he hasn’t won on more than one occasion, with the likes of Rafael Nadal and Djokovic around it would take some effort for him to win it again, but one thing is for sure- Federer is a threat once more and that can only be a good thing for the sport.

Earlier on Chatrier, 3^rd seed in the Women’s draw Agnieszka Radwanska beat Shuai Zhang for the loss of just three games before Serena Williams began her title defence with a 6-2 6-1 victory over Alize Lim. Elsewhere in the men’s draw home favourite Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-6(4) 7-5 6-2.