Roger Federer starts Cincinnati Masters defense with win, back to old racquet

World number five Roger Federer started his North American hardcourt season with a win at the Cincinnati Masters 2013 tournament. The Swiss star defeated German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday 6-3, 7-6. Federer is a five-time champion at this ATP Masters 1000 event.

“I think it was a match where I had to sort of just fight to come through and hope get over the finish line sort of thing,” he said. “I was playing really well at times, and then sometimes it was maybe a bit up and down. But assessing the performance overall, I’m very happy. It’s good to be back and playing pain free. My mind’s good. I was in a good place while I was playing, so it felt nice to win at the end.”

The 32-year old star returned to his original 90-square inch frame racquet and he revealed that he will be using this through the US Open 2013 Championships.

“I’m going to do more racquet testing when I have, again, some more time after the US Open,” he said. “I was playing for a month with the black one, but it’s a prototype. At the end, I just felt like, you know what, right now I feel like I need to simplify everything and just play with what I know best.”

Federer has a 31-7 record in Cincinnati and just became the first player in the Open Era to win the Cincinnati Masters five times. He defeated Novak Djokovic in the final last year. Djokovic is aiming to complete a historic Career Golden Masters by winning this event for the first time. The Serbian world number one has been a runner-up four times.

Up next for Federer is either Spain’s Marcel Granollers or good friend 11th-seed Tommy Haas of Germany.