Roger Federer's first match since winning the Australian Open a month ago brought a bit of a scare and the loss of a set before he reached the second round of the Dubai Open on Monday.
The triple Grand Slam titleholder won the Melbourne event without losing a set in seven matches, but there were moments during Federer's 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-3 success against Kristian Pless when the crowd began to wonder if a major shock might occur.
But Federer looked remarkably relaxed considering the distractions he faced before and during his victory over the world No. 86 from Denmark, and he timed the only break of serve in the final set well, surging to 3-1 and then consolidating the advantage three times without alarm.
Federer could have been forgiven had his mind been wandering. On court before the match, he was honored for having beaten Jimmy Connors' all-time record of 160 consecutive weeks as world No. 1 by being presented with a Waterford crystal vase, a traditional silver Arabian dagger usually given to great warriors, an honorary life time membership of the Dubai Aviation Club and a large cake, which he cut.
Previous knowledge
"It was very special of course and I knew I would break the record since I beat Andy [Roddick] at the Masters Cup in Shanghai [in November] and I have been looking forward to it," Federer said. "It's a great day and I slept in and everything and got nice presents. And I was very happy that I could celebrate it with this win. I don't know if I can stay at this position -- it requires a lot of hard work."
When asked if the ceremony had distracted him Federer did not directly contradict the suggestion, but Pless, who went boldly for his shots and came up with some big first serves and some penetrating forehands, had some distractions of his own.
He had not long flown from Memphis, was still jet lagged and was also unused to this particular hard court surface. Federer by contrast has been here for two weeks.
Given this Pless played excellently, saving break points in his first and third service games, and only losing the first set after Federer had sneaked two mini-breaks in the tie-break with wonderfully fluent drive winners.
But in the fourth game of the second set Pless pressured Federer into over-hitting twice with his normally reliable topspin forehand, and even more surprisingly, after breaking that service game, Pless hung on tenaciously to his advantage.
It was then that Federer's enormous experience and court presence made the difference, for he was able to create an ambience of inevitability about his eventual breakthrough. It came with ubiquitous mixtures of smooth net attacks and athletic hinterland containment.
`Usual round'
"It was the usual Dubai first round," commented Federer, who almost lost to Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic in the opener here two years ago.
"It's always rough here for some reason. The court is so quick and there were just no rallies," he said of a fast and staccato match which lasted less than an hour and a half for three sets.
"I didn't want to get frustrated especially after not getting competitive matches for one month. I wasn't really nervous at all. I was just looking to get my reactions going but I still wanted to play well because you are jumping out of your skin," he said a little mysteriously, but probably referring to the uncertain nature of the contest.
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