Roger Federer happy to still be playing

Roger Federer v Marcel Granollers French Open

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Roger Federer admitted that he was pleased to still be able to compete at the highest level after beating Marcel Granollers in the second round of the French Open.

The 33-year-old has played in the last 62 Grand Slam tournaments and is showing no sign of slowing down and is certainly not thinking about retiring from the game.

Granollers had taken a set off Federer in the third round of last year’s US Open and gave the Swiss veteran plenty to think about in the second set before eventually losing 6-2 7-6 6-3.

Federer, who will play Damir Dzunhur in the next round, said after beating Granollers: “The goal was always to play for a long time regardless if I had kids or not. I’m happy I’m still going.”

Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych defeated his Davis Cup team-mate Radek Stepanek 6-3 6-7 6-3 6-3.

Berdych is one of the form players this year having reached the quarter-finals or better in all nine of his tournament appearances. He is 1.05 to beat Benoit Paire in the third round.

Gael Monfils, the number 13 seed, edged to victory against Diego Schwartzman 4-6 6-4 4-6 6-2 6-3, to the delight of the Parisian crowd.

“I won because I had the crowd behind me,” said the Frenchman afterwards. “When I serve the break points, the crowd start to be with me and motivate me.”

Monfils is 1.36 to beat Pablo Cuevas in the third round.

Another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, also won through to the next round, thrashing Dudi Sela 6-4 6-1 6-1.

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