Federer Struggles Through Windy Win at Athens Olympics

World No. 1 Roger Federer overcame windy conditions and a tenacious effort by Russian Nikolay Davydenko to advance to the second round at the Athens Olympics Monday with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 win.

Federer improved his career record against Davydenko to 3-0, but all three meetings have gone three sets. Federer was cruising against Davydenko until serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, then the wheels came off.

"It was an up-and-down day, and in the third set, I was really unsure how it would go," Federer said. "After losing the second set, I told myself, 'I need to respond.' There's a bit of pressure. If you lose, it's like, 'See you in four years.'"

The win was Federer's 58th of the season against five losses.

"I'm the big favorite," Federer said, "and I want to take advantage of it."

Other seeds into the second round were (3)Carlos Moya (d. Enqvist 9-7 in the third after two breakers), (10)Nicolas Massu (d. Kuerten in three), and (15)Tommy "The R." Robredo (d. (Inv)Ouahab).

"You're not very confident when you're playing in such windy conditions," said Moya after saving three match points in beating Enqvist, employing more than usual backhand slice. "So I tried to survive and put in as many balls as I could."

Upsets on the day were caused by Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson (d. (12)Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan, continuing the Thai's horrible year), the giant "Dr." Ivo Karlovic (d. (13)Pavel in three), and Russian Igor Andreev (d. (7)Rainer "Shine" Schuettler in three).

"It was a catastrophe," Schuettler said. "With this wind all you could do was try to keep the ball in court. He managed to keep a few more in me than me."

Un-seeds into the second round were Americans Taylor Dent (d. (Alt)Nieminen in three) and Vince Spadea (d. Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer), Czech Tomas Berdych (d. Mayer), Croat Ivan Ljubicic (d. Sargis "Sarge" Sargsian), Argentine (Alt)Agustin Calleri (d. Beck 8-6 in the third), Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. El Aynaoui), Belgian Olivier "The Roach" Rochus (d. Mark "Scud" Philippoussis 6-1 in the third, with the Aussie restricted by knee tendonitis), and Frenchmen Fabrice "The Original Wizard" Santoro (d. Volandri) and Arnaud Clement (d. (WC)N.Lapentti).

Among the doubles highlights were (1)Bob/Mike Bryan stomping unseeded Russians Marat "Next!" Safin/Mikhail Youzhny, and Indians (5)Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes taming the big serving games of unseeded Americans Mardy Fish/Andy Roddick in straight sets.

On court Tuesday in Athens are (5)Ferrero vs. Fish, Haas vs. (2)Roddick, Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. Dent, (1)Federer vs. Berdych, Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez vs. (9)Safin (watch for the tank by the Russian), (3)Moya vs. Olivier "The Roach" Rochus, Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. Ljubicic, (14)Kiefer vs. (INV)Baghdatis, (8)Sebastien "The Skateboard Kid" Grosjean vs. (WC)Arthurs, (10)Massu vs. Spadea, (16)Fernando "The Flayin' Chilean" Gonzalez vs. (WC)H.-T. Lee, Fabrice "The Original Wizard" Santoro vs. (15)Robredo, Nieminen vs. Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, Youzhny vs. Novak, Clement vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, and Calleri vs. Andreev.

"My top rival right now is Tommy Haas," Roddick said. "The questions that Roger (Federer) and I get about each other are irrelevant until we get to the point where we have to deal with each other. I'm not one to look ahead, and I think it would be pretty arrogant to say that he is my main rival when I have to win four more matches for it to be a possibility."

Doubles highlights include Indians (5)Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes vs. the Swiss Yves Allegro/Roger Federer, Germans Nicolas Kiefer/Rainer Schuettler vs. Aussies (2)Wayne Arthurs/Todd Woodbridge, Chileans Fernando Gonzalez/Nicolas Massu vs. Argentines (6)Gaston Etlis/Martin Rodriguez, and Americans (1)Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan in a Davis Cup semifinal preview vs. Belarus' Max Mirnyi/Vladimir Voltchkov.