Federer Beats Mannarino; Fish Makes Finals Push

© AFP/Getty ImagesFederer won 90 percent of his service points vs Mannarino.

No. 3 seed Roger Federer continued his recent run of form with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over wild card Adrian Mannarino in the second round of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris on Wednesday. "I thought it was a good match for me," said Federer. "I think Mannarino didn't play the best match, but for me it was a good way to find my way into the tournament."

Federer dominated on serve, winning 90 percent of his points to advance in just 56 minutes. He is coming off of his fifth triumph at the Swiss Indoors Basel, where he defeated Kei Nishikori to win his second title of the season. "I felt rested coming into this tournament, even though it's been busy the last few days," Federer said. "That's a good feeling to have, because now I've got to back it up day after day if I want to do well here. I was happy with my performance today.  It was great."

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The Swiss is seeking his first title at the event. His best finish came last year when he reached the semi-finals before falling to Gael Monfils, after holding five match points.

The 17-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion will take on 16th seed Richard Gasquet for a place in the quarter-finals. "I'm going to prepare as if I had the best Richard Gasquet ever against me," stated Federer. "I will need to play a good match, otherwise it is not going to be enough tomorrow.

"He didn't play for a while, but I expect Gasquet to be totally fit, otherwise he wouldn't be back in competition. It would have been easy for him just to go off on holidays and prepare for next year. So if he's here, it means he can play."

American Mardy Fish began his final push for a Barclays ATP World Tour Finals spot with a 6-1, 6-2 rout of German Florian Mayer in 56 minutes. The seventh-seeded Fish won 92 per cent of his first serve points and capitalised on four of his eight break points to notch his first match win since reaching the Tokyo semi-finals in early October.

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Fish entered the week in eighth position in the battle for London, 505 points ahead of Spaniard Nicolas Almagro at No. 9. He can guarantee his place at The O2 by winning his third-round match Thursday last week's Valencia finalist Juan Monaco.

"I have never been in this position before, so it's hard not to look at the race and the rankings," admitted Fish. "I'm a human being like everyone else, so I have looked at it a lot and know all the scenarios. Also know that if I win one more match then I'm in, so that's the goal."

Monaco ousted another Finals hopeful, 10th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, finishing strong to close out a 6-4, 6-0 win in one hour and 13 minutes. Simon would have qualified for the circuit finale by winning the Paris title.

"I would have liked the season to keep going a bit longer," said Simon. "Ending this season on a score of 6-love like last year is not really what I wanted. I didn't want that kind of a match, either. I didn't play well. He was extremely good. I'm sure he made very few unforced errors. I was never able to find my rhythm."

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