Federer Back on Track After Win Over Querrey in Miami

Playing in front of golfer Tiger Woods and his wife Elin, the top-seeded Swiss needed 62 minutes to win his rain-delayed, second round match against the 19-year-old American wild card.

Federer, who is trying to become the first player to win three titles in a row since Andre Agassi (2001-03), was playing his first match since an opening round loss to Guillermo Canas at Indian Wells two weeks ago. That loss ended Federer's career-high 41-match winning streak.

But with Tiger watching, Federer got his game back on track.

"He told me since a couple of months he's going to come out because I knew so far in advance when I was going to play," Federer said of Woods. "So that was a great thing. I think we should do that more in the future... I'm happy he comes out during a tournament. I don't know how golfers are, if they're more serious than us tennis players. But I went out to see his practice, too, and it's great that he comes to watch tennis. I think it's a great honor for our sport."

Meawhile, the seventh-seeded Ivan Ljubicic, a finalist a year ago, made it three career wins out of three against Filippo Volandri of Italy with a 6-3, 6-2 win in 65 minutes on Stadium court. The Croat, who captured his seventh career ATP title in Doha (d. Murray) at the start of the year and also reached finals in Zagreb (l. to Baghdatis) and Rotterdam (l. to Youzhny), improves to 14-7.

Volandri snapped an eight-tournament losing streak, stretching back to his title-winning run at Palermo in late September 2006, when Nicolas Mahut retired with a left foot injury in the first round on Friday. The 25-year-old Volandri was leading 6-3 at the time.

Ninth seed Tommy Haas suffered a surprising exit in his Miami opener falling to Colombian lucky loser Alejandro Falla, 6-4, 6-4. The German, whose 20 victories this season ties him with Scot Andy Murray as the 2007 ATP match wins leaders, had advanced to the quarterfinals or better in his five other tournament this year.

The 23-year-old Falla replaced Philipp Kohlschreiber in the draw after the German withdrew with gastroenteritis, and is making his debut in Miami.

"I was the third out, so I wasn't expecting to get into the major," Falla said. "I was very lucky, because yesterday two guys pulled out, so then I could make it to the main draw, and now I'm in the third round. Since I qualified, I knew I was playing very well."

Richard Gasquet, currently No. 16 in the ATP Rankings, won an all-French battle against Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 in one hour and 45 minutes for a place in the third round. Despite winning just 11 points in the second set, 20-year-old Gasquet regained his composure to improve his match record to 15-5 this year.

Finnish No. 20 seed Jarkko Nieminen recorded a 6-0, 6-0 victory over lucky loser Evgeny Korolev of Russia in 56 minutes for a place in the third round. At the same tournament last year, there were two ‘double-bagel’ wins for Carlos Berlocq (d. Young in the first round) and James Blake (d. Berlocq in the second round).

Argentine David Nalbandian and Czech Tomas Berdych also picked up wins in their openers. The 11th-seeded Nalbandian defeated American Vince Spadea 6-3, 6-4, while No. 14 seed Berdych topped Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-4, 6-1.