Wildcard doubles team Roger Federer and Ze Zhang cruised past their opening doubles match at the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Monday after the duo defeated Kevin Anderson and Dmitry Tursunov 6-2, 6-1 in just 48 minutes.
Federer said that his partnership with the Chinese number one player is a good thing for China.
“That’s kind of the ultimate goal, to partner up with a Chinese up-and-coming player and promote the game at the same time,” Federer said. “I’m just so happy for Zhang Ze, that he played really well. I really am, because he couldn’t have played any better.”
The Swiss tennis superstar is hoping to see more players from the Asian region to make a mark at the ATP Tour.
“We had Paradorn Srichaphan, we have Kei Nishikori from Japan. Hopefully we’ll have more and more players coming up,” said Federer. “By having such a great tournament [and] all the top players coming here to Shanghai, I think that’s only going to help it,” he said.
Up next for Federer and Zhang are fifth seeds Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig.
