Wimbledon 2021 tennis: Roger Federer advances to round two following Adrian Mannarino injury in epic clash

ByEurosport

Updated 29/06/2021 at 19:47 GMT

Roger Federer survived a major scare in his Wimbledon first round encounter against Adrian Mannarino, before the Frenchman was forced to retire with injury. Watch daily evening highlights of all the best action from Wimbledon on Eurosport 1, plus the men's and women's finals live on Eurosport 2. All coverage is also available to stream via eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app.

Roger Federer survived a major scare in his Wimbledon first round encounter against Adrian Mannarino, before the Frenchman was forced to retire with injury with the score at 6-4, 6-7(3), 3-6, 6-2, 0-0.

Mannarino pushed the legendary Swiss all the way before slipping awkwardly in the fourth set.

The Frenchman had led 2 sets to 1 at one stage, and looked well placed to cause a huge upset in London.

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However, he will be left cursing his luck after his fall ended his tournament.

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After finding himself 0-40 down in his opening service game, Federer successfully clawed back the three break points and the set stayed on serve until the 10th game where the eight-time winner upped the gears to take the first set.

Mannarino then found himself with two more break points at 2-1 up in the second set but once again Federer was able to recover.

The Frenchman was neither overawed by the occasion nor his opponent and produced a devastating service game, winning 15 points unanswered on serve at one stage as the set moved towards an unavoidable tiebreak.

Uncharacteristically unsettled, a number of unforced errors from Federer gifted the second set to Mannarino, with the 33-year-old winning the tiebreak.

The mistakes continued into the third set and when Federer sent a straightforward forehand wide down the line in the second game, Mannarino all of a sudden found himself a break up.

Despite breaking back, the Frenchman again seized the advantage and was soon successfully serving for the set at with Federer is trouble.

However, as if to immediately try and banish thoughts of an upset among the crowd, Federer raced into a 3-0 lead in the fourth.

Mannarino suffered a knee injury against Federer.

Image credit: Getty Images

Things took a worrying turn when Mannarino slipped at the back of the court while reacting to a shot and looked to have caused himself some damage to his left knee.

After receiving treatment, the Frenchman attempted to continue and hobbled through to the end of the set as Federer closed it out 6-2.

However, that was as far as he would go and retired before that start of the fifth.

"It is awful and shows one shot can change the outcome of a match, season, career and I wish him all the best and hope we see him back quickly" admitted Federer after the match.

"He was the better player, he could have won, I got a bit lucky."

Federer now faces Richard Gasquet who beat Yuichi Sugita in four sets.

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Watch daily evening highlights on Eurosport 1, plus the men's and women's finals live on Eurosport 2. All coverage is also available to stream via eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app

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