rogerfederer.com - Roger just makes it

Roger just makes it

Roger survived quite a scare from Takao Suzuki – ranked 1,078 – in his quarter final match. He prevailed 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 after being pushed to the limit by an inspired Japanese wildcard, who was playing his first tournament in nine months.

"I could see the headlines," a relieved Federer told reporters. "'Federer loses to a guy outside the top 1,000.' I'm glad I won -- it saved my image."

It was a day of records in Tokio. Roger now already holds 1’346 points in the ATP race; one more than his last year’s best. Had Suzuki managed to defeat Roger, that would certainly also have made for a record!

Benjamin Becker, who had ended Andre Agassi’s last quest for the US Open title earlier this year pushed on and on in the night hours against Jiri Novak: The final result was 3-6, 6-3,7-6 (4) – and the time 3:24 in the morning! No match on the Tour had been finished as late as that before.

"I had to dig deep and come up with a good breaker in the end. There's always a fear of losing. It was a relief," Roger said. He now moved on to a semi-final encounter with either Finland's Jarkko Nieminen or German Benjamin Becker on Saturday.