Published>Thu, May 27 10 01:47 AM
Roger Federer does not usually need Lady Luck to smile on him but the Swiss maestro accepted he had been a touch fortunate to escape with such a straightforward second-round win over Alejandro Falla on Wednesday.
The 7-6 6-2 6-4 victory was eventually a comfortable one but the reigning champion struggled to make early inroads on the Colombian's service, Falla conceding just three points until misfiring when serving for the set at 6-5 in the opener.
Once Federer raised his game to take the opening set tiebreak 7-4, it was plain sailing for the world number one as Falla's level dropped.
"I think he really pushed me to come up with something special, which I couldn't do in the first set. I definitely got a little bit lucky to get out of that one," Federer told a news conference.
"I thought the first set was good from both sides. Maybe we had a lot of unforced errors, but rallies were long and we were neutralising each other.
"I never really got a chance to get into his service games, only until really I was able to break him at 6-5."
After a frustrating hour or so when two rain breaks ruined the momentum of the match, Federer upped his game and treated a crowd dominated by the excitable cheers of local schoolchildren to a feast of stroke-making as he came through in two hours.
Federer said his game plan picked up after the rain breaks following words of shrewd advice from coach Severin Luthi.
"It was a matter of quickly changing shirt and getting a chance to speak to your coach and coming up with the proper game plan depending on the scoreline.
"I think that helped me, actually, because after that I played a good set. He gave me some good advice, and obviously the second rain delay was actually quite comfortable because I was up two sets to love."
He will now play German qualifier Julian Reister for a place in the last 16.
"I think I've only warmed up with him once in Hamburg a couple years ago. Obviously I don't remember how he plays."
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