World number one Roger Federer overcame a scare to survive a formidable first hurdle in the fifth Tennis Masters Series tournament of the year in Hamburg on Tuesday.
Federer found himself 3-4 down in the final set against Gaston Gaudio before squeezing through 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in a match played under the tented centre court roof on a damp and drizzly day.
For a while it seemed that the all-court game of the brilliant Swiss player would overwhelm the baseline hitting and counter-hitting of the Argentine clay-court expert, but Gaudio began to make Federer play longer rallies more frequently in the second set.
He established a 3-0 lead, lost it, and then made another hard-working push to level the match, and made a second recovery from 0-2 down in the final set.
It was then that Federer cleverly found a way to make his all-round skills count.
He had Gaudio at 30-40 at three-all, only for the unseeded player to escape, but when Federer earned two break points at four-all he converted the first of them, then serving boldly out for the match, finishing with an ace.
”These are matches you have to win in heavy conditions from the baseline,” said Federer.
”I don’t have a big enough game with my serve to get cheap points.
”So I have to have a good game plan and hit a lot of balls. I definitely have to mix it up because I am not going to rally 20 shots and my opponents know it.
”I try to be aggressive in the first few shots and then start to grind it out. It’s difficult because it’s really heavy out there and there are a lot of bad bounces. But today my plan worked and I’m pretty happy with the way I played.”
Later Carlos Moya, the seventh-seeded winner of last week’s Masters Series tournament in Rome, survived a set point against him in the first set and single degree night-time temperatures to beat his fellow Spaniard David Sanchez 7-5, 6-4.
Earlier, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt justified his elevation into a seeding position following the withdrawal of the injured Juan Carlos Ferrero, but he had to save a set point to do so.
Hewitt overcame Jonas Bjorkman, the canny 32-year-old Swede, 6-0, 7-6 (7/5), but there were moments in the second set when the match threatened to transform itself dramatically.
The Australian had only lost a handful of points in the first set, finishing it off with an improbable backhand smash while moving back, but he found himself obliged to chisel out his success in the second.
He was also in difficulty at 30-40 on his serve at 5-6, a crisis he averted by battling out a lengthy baseline rally and being rewarded when Bjorkman drove a straight forehand slightly wide.
Hewitt then found himself a mini break down at 2-4 in the tie-break, at which stage Bjorkman gave him some assistance. He put a backhand counter-hit into the net and then ran down a drop shot well, only to hit his cross court backhand wide from a decent position.
On match point on his serve at 5-6 Bjorkman put another backhand drive wide from a mis-hit Hewitt return — a disappointing end to a determined fight-back.
It earned Hewitt what promises to be a much livelier encounter, in front of a noisy German crowd against locally born former world number two Tommy Haas.
Two other seeds failed to survive.
Rainer Schuttler, the number four from Germany, lost a three-hour match 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 against his wild card compatriot Lars Burgsmuller while David Nalbandian, the number five from Argentina, gained only five games against David Ferrer, a Spaniard outside the top 50. — Sapa-AFP