Wednesday 25 October 2017 06:05, UK
Roger Federer began his quest to land an eighth title at the Swiss Indoors in Basel with a straightforward victory over youngster Frances Tiafoe.
The world No 2 continued his superb form in front of the local crowd by making quick work of American Tiafoe 6-1 6-3 on Tuesday.
The 36-year-old Swiss, who has competed in a dozen Basel finals, wasted no time in establishing domination of the young gun by quickly rolling 4-0 ahead before his 19-year-old opponent managed to get a game on the board.
Federer then produced a love game and closed out the set in 29 minutes on his first set point.
Tiafoe's resistance stiffened slightly in the second set, with Federer achieving the break in the eighth game for 5-3 before wrapping up victory in 61 minutes.
Home favourite Federer will next face France's Benoit Paire, a 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) winner over American Steve Johnson.
Two more seeds joined Federer in the second round, with number three David Goffin defeating German Peter Gojowczyk 6-2 7-5, and fifth seed Jack Sock rallying past Vasek Pospisil 3-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-5 while Argentine Leonardo Mayer knocked out number eight seed Mischa Zverev 7-5 7-5.
Defending champion and second seed Marin Cilic advanced in just 30 minutes after German Florian Mayer was forced to retire injured when trailing 6-3.
Juan Martin del Potro, the winner in 2012 and 2013, is hoping to build on his recent momentum as the Argentine bids to snatch a place for next month's ATP Finals in London. He starts his Basel campaign against Portugal's Joao Sousa on Wednesday.
"I just want to keep winning events," Del Potro said. "I'm not thinking of London, it was not one of my goals this year. I know I'm getting closer, I'm just fighting to win all my matches.
"My goal is to play a good tournament here. I will see how far I can move (in the points race to London).
"I must also see how I feel for Paris (next week's final Masters tournament of the season). I will be playing for four straight weeks, that's something I've not done for three or four years."
Sky Sports has all the action from the Erste Bank Open in Vienna and Swiss Indoors Basel this week before the Paris Masters.
The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza World Tour Finals at London's O2 in November end another memorable year which will be covered via our website sky.mnosports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.
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