Federer overcomes Alves challenge

1:38pm Saturday 30th August 2008

Roger Federer was able to overcome a sloppy performance on Friday against unheralded Brazilian Thiago Alves to reach the third round of the US Open.

The second-seeded Federer nearly had as many unforced errors as winners in a tougher-than-expected 6-3 7-5 6-4 victory over the 26-year-old Alves, who is ranked 137th in the world.

Number three seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the reigning Australian Open champion, also was tested but fought off unseeded American Robert Kendrick 7-6 (10/8) 6-4 6-4.

Eighth-seeded American Andy Roddick perhaps had the toughest test of all Friday, battling to defeat Latvia's Ernests Gulbis 3-6 7-5 6-2 7-5 in just under three hours.

Much like Federer, Roddick is not having the type of season he expected in 2008. After a great start to the year that included his engagement to model Brooklyn Decker, Roddick lost in third round at the Australian Open, sat out the French Open and suffered a second-round exit at Wimbledon.

He was in danger of continuing that dismal pattern here, dropping the first set and falling behind 5-4 in the second. Roddick was so flustered, he even smashed his racket on the court in a fit of anger.

But the American star bounced back, breaking Gulbis' serve to make it five-all in the second. Roddick then took that set and won the first three games of the third to take control of the match.

In an earlier second-round match Friday, number 1 seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile survived an injury scare to get past American Bobby Reynolds 7-6 (8/6) 6-4 6-4.

Down 2-0 in the second set, Gonzalez suffered a sprained left ankle. But he recovered after getting his ankle re-taped during an injury time-out. Also reaching the round of 32 was number five seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who ousted Argentina's Agustin Calleri 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7/2).

Other seeded winners included number 11 Fernando Gonzalez, number 13 Fernando Verdasco, number 15 Tommy Robredo, number 18 Nicolas Almagro, number 19 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, number 23 Igor Andreev, number 26 Dmitry Tursuno, number 28 Radek Stepanek, number 30 Marin Cilic and number 31 Andreas Seppi. Seppi will take on Roddick in the third round.

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