Roger Federer opens his Wimbledon with a win and a new sponsor: Uniqlo



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WIMBLEDON, England – Roger Federer won a record at Wimbledon eight times, which meant Monday, following the tradition, that he was playing for the eighth time the first match of the Center Court on the first day of the tournament.

Federer, 36 years old He has played more than 100 matches at the All England Club since his first match in 1999. But that does not mean that the butterflies were absent when he walked on his court with his first-round opponent, Dusan Lajovic, 58th.

"This remains a little scary, you know, in all honesty," Federer said at a press conference Sunday. "It's a big problem, I mean, in addition to the story and the mythical place that's it, you can not practice it too." When you go out, there's a little of uncertainty for both players. "

On Monday, the walk on the court had another surprise: who would Federer wear? His longtime sponsorship Nike expired in March, leading to a lot of speculation about his clothing contract. He appeared Monday in the clothes of Uniqlo, the Japanese company.

Federer sporting the red square logo of Uniqlo could have been a jarring sight, but his grbad tennis seemed very familiar, while he was sending Lajovic, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 in 1 hour 19 minutes.

Federer won his last Grand Slam, the Australian Open, for his 20th major title. He then won the title in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in February, to return to first place, which he has since been in connection with his longtime rival, Rafael Nadal. (Nadal is No. 1 now, but because Wimbledon uses a special formula for sowing, Federer is the first seed.)

After he reaches the final in Indian Wells, California , and loses In the first match of the Miami Open in March, Federer decided to spend the season on clay for the second year in a row.

"I think the three months have still done me good," said Federer

. Since returning three weeks ago for the grbad season, he has won eight of nine games, reaching two finals. "I played all the grbad games I was hoping to play," said Federer.

Nine games in 12 days left him tired, he said, but he was confident in Wimbledon

Federer's clay-court This absence, combined with the injury to the early leg Nadal's season, means that it is the first tournament played since the Australian Open in January

Nadal has just won his eleventh Open of France, but is not the only one in the world. has not played any field matches yet. This year, he has not managed to pbad the knockout stage at Wimbledon since 2011. He opens Tuesday against Dudi Sela.

As a prelude to this tournament, Federer and Nadal were riddled with questions around the 10th anniversary. from their 2008 final here, won by Nadal in five sets as the darkness got closer. That's, surprisingly, the last time they've clashed at the All England Club.

At the time, the match was declared the best of all time. It was considered seminal, a possible change of guard since Nadal won his first Grand Slam title outside of clay and stopped Federer's five-game winning streak at Wimbledon. The match was the subject of a book in 2009 and a new documentary. [Federer] said Sunday that he and Nadal would probably still talk about the match "when we"

But a decade later, Federer and Nadal are the No. 1 and No. 2 at Wimbledon, as they were in 2008. They shared the last six Grand Slam titles.The guard has not changed – or, at least, the old guard is new again.