Federer through but Zverev beaten in Halle

Roger Federer made it 17 wins in a row on grass as he eased into the second round in Halle, but second seed Alexander Zverev made an early exit.

Nine-time champion Federer saw off Slovenia’s Aljaz Bedene 6-3 6-4 just 48 hours after winning the title in Stuttgart.

“I am glad to have a break tomorrow,” said Federer, who faces Frenchman Benoit Paire in the round of 16.

“I got out of the box well, I felt good right away. This is an easier court to play than last week in Stuttgart.

“The ball bounces up higher into my strike zone. I was connecting well on returns and I could read his serve.”

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The 36-year-old Swiss needs to win the tournament to retain the No.1 ranking ahead of Rafael Nadal.

Zverev had finished runner-up on the Halle grass courts for the last two years but will not match that this year after a 6-1 6-4 loss to Croatia’s Borna Coric.

Top-shelf tennis from @borna_coric!

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Takes out No.2-seeded Sascha Zverev 6-1 6-4 at #GerryWeberOpen for his 20th win of 2018. pic.twitter.com/zU569BJP8c

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) June 19, 2018

The German was playing his first match since reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open.

“There is not a lot to analyse about this match,” Zverev told the Gerry Weber Open website.

“I only trained once on grass beforehand and played one doubles match. I probably had the most difficult draw in the first round. Now I just have to train.

“Before the match, I tried to think about always feeling good here in Halle on the Centre Court. But that was completely different today. The longer the match took, the better I got. I thought, if I get a break at 4-5, I might be able to turn the match. But that’s the way it goes.

“The most important thing is for sure, that I didn’t get any problems with my hamstring. That was all good.”

Coric took his record against the world No.3 to 3-1, and goes on to face Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili or 17-year-old German Rudolf Molleker.

Eighth seed Richard Gasquet could not back up Sunday’s title in the Netherlands as he lost 6-2 6-2 to German wildcard Florian Mayer, and French fifth seed Lucas Pouille went down 6-2 7-6(3) to Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas.