Roger Federer and Ashleigh Barty will return to Centre Court at Wimbledon on Thursday hoping to produce more assured performances than they...
Roger Federer and Ashleigh Barty will return to Centre Court at Wimbledon on Thursday hoping to produce more assured performances than they did in their first round matches.
Sandwiched in between their two matches is Coco Gauff’s first appearance on Centre Court since aged 15 when she won the hearts and minds of the spectators in 2019.
Eight-time champion Federer will play a familiar face, fellow veteran Frenchman Richard Gasquet who the Swiss legend beat in the 2007 semi-finals.
Gasquet, 35, is not the force of old though his strokeplay can be blissful but Federer too has looked shaky since returning after two knee operations in the past year.
The 39-year-old had enough problems against another experienced Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the first round.
They were tied at two sets all when the Frenchman had to retire with a knee injury suffered in a fall towards the end of the fourth set.
Federer who arrived on the back of a surprise second round exit at the tournament he has made his own Halle, which he has won 10 times, put a rusty performance down to it being the first round.
Barty, motivated by this being the 50th anniversary of her fellow indigenous Australian Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s first title, plays Russian Anna Blinkova.
Blinkova like Barty was...
