Federer given a fright in Miami

Federer needed to concentrate to beat Morrison Keystone

Switzerland's Roger Federer made heavy weather of beating America's Jeff Morrison 6-1, 7-6, to go through to the third round of the ATP tournament in Miami.

Federer had to save five set points in the second set against a player ranked 125 places below him, before closing out the tiebreak 8-6.

“I feel reborn here in Miami. The conditions suit me a lot better than at Indian Wells,” he said. “In California I was having a lot of trouble striking the ball.”

While Federer lived to fight another day, the same could not be said for Marie-Gaiane Mikaelian, Patty Schnyder and Emmanuelle Gagliardi in the women’s tournament.

Mikaelian, lacking match practice, went down in three sets to Russia’s Tatiana Panova 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. After taking the first set in only 26 minutes, the Swiss was guilty of allowing Panova to claw her way back into the match.

Then at 5-5 in the third and deciding set, Mikaelian lost her concentration when the Russian took a toilet break.

Schnyder never really got going in her match against Sandra Reeves from the United States, losing in just under an hour, 6-4, 6-0.

Gagliardi, like Mikaelian, also came unstuck against a Russian, going down 6-0, 6-4 to the tournament’s number 12 seed, Elena Dementieva.

swissinfo with agencies