Federer one win from becoming oldest number one

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Roger Federer moved to within one victory of becoming the oldest man to take the world number one ranking on Thursday with a hard-fought 7-6 (10/8), 7-5 victory over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Rotterdam Open.

The 36-year-old will now face Robin Haase in the quarter-finals.“Tonight was complicated, I had to fight and struggle,” said Federer. “I had a good game plan going in, but I was never able to completely pull it off.

“He came out with a clean start. I was serving well, that’s a great sign. I’d rather do that and return poorly.”Thursday’s win was Federer’s 13th in as many meetings against Kohlschreiber.The first set was a 54-minute struggle with the top seed having to work hard against the veteran German who was broken for the only time in the match when he double-faulted to hand Federer a 6-5 lead in the second set.

Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam title winner, then eased to victory in the 12th game with a volley winner on second match point.The Swiss is excited about the possibility of returning to the top of the rankings 19 years after he played Rotterdam in 1999 on his first career wild card.“This is an exciting challenge, I’ve struggled to try and get there,” said Federer.