Federer starts strong in Rotterdam

Roger Federer picked up his 6th win of the young season against Grega Zemlja 6-3, 6-1 in his opening match in Rotterdam.  The Swiss is looking for his 77th career title and 3rd title at this event.

Federer started out with a little bit of rust as he struggled in the first four games to find rhythm.  He was forced to save two break points at 1-2 but once he got the hold, he immediately broke to love the next game and then broke once again to close out the set winning 5 of the last 6 games.  The second set was more of the same as he broke another two times to advance.  He won 11 of the last 13 games of the match, and he will look to carry that momentum against the Netherlands own Thiemo De Bakker.

Should he get by De Bakker, which is expected obviously, he'll play Julien Benneteau in the quarters.  The most likely semifinal opponent now that Tsonga was eliminated is Gilles Simon, the 5th seed.

PS: after the tournament is over, I'm going to be giving my thoughts about Nadal's recent criticisms of the ATP.