Thursday 9 June 2016 16:46, UK
Tennis great Roger Federer returned to action after injury with a hard-fought win over youngster Taylor Fritz in round two of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.
The top seed eventually prevailed 6-4 5-7 6-4 and has now won 1,071 matches in his career, to draw level with Ivan Lendl for second-most victories in the Open era behind Jimmy Connors (1,256).
The 34-year-old Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam champion, has endured an unusually injury-plagued 2016 and was playing his first match since 12 May, having been forced to sit out the French Open with a back injury.
His clash with Fritz was suspended due to rain on Wednesday, with Federer leading 4-3, and the Swiss went on to close out the first set when play resumed.
But the 18-year-old Fritz is a promising young American and broke Federer at the end of set two to level the match, successfully converting his fourth set point.
Set three was also tight but Federer managed to save the two break points he faced and converted his only break point opportunity, as Fritz blew a 40-15 lead when serving for 5-4, making four consecutive errors.
World No 3 Federer advances to face Florian Mayer in the quarter finals, as he looks to get matches under his belt ahead of his bid for an eighth singles title at Wimbledon.
"I got the feel of playing matches again," said Federer. "It was also good to see how the body reacted.
"The match was short but I felt good. No tension.
"My energy level was up and down, it's a good thing I found it again at the end. I was wondering where it went during some of the match.
"It just felt good to be back on the match court."
Fritz was pleased with his display and said: "If I'd known I would take a set off Federer, I would have been pretty happy.
"I have great respect for Federer, but I also showed I was not afraid to test him by winning the second set and trying to win the match. I hung in there."
Also through to the last eight is French Open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem, who won 7-6 7-6 after a testing battle with big-serving Aussie Sam Groth, who sent down 21 aces in a match which featured no breaks of serve.
Thiem, winner of three titles already this year, will next square off against Mikhail Youzhny, after the Russian beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3 7-6.
But former US Open champion Marin Cilic is out, having been defeated 7-6 7-5 by Czech veteran Radek Stepanek.
