Federer barely escapes Madrid second round

MADRID, May 4 (UPI) -- Roger Federer came from behind in a third-set tiebreaker Wednesday in escaping with a second-round win at the Madrid Open tennis tournament.

On a day when world No. 1 Rafael Nadal sailed through his match and second-ranked Novak Djokovic kept his 2011 unbeaten streak alive, Federer, third in the world rankings, battled through a 7-6 (15-13), 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (9-7) marathon against Feliciano Lopez.

Federer took a 7-0 lifetime record against Lopez into the match but needed nearly 3 hours to get to 8-0. He lost his serve only once -- that forced the first-set tiebreaker -- but was unable to solve Lopez's serve either.

Lopez won a point off Federer's serve for a 3-1 lead in the final tiebreaker and was up 5-2 at one point. He had a match point opportunity before Federer won four of the last five points.

Nadal cruised through a 6-1, 6-3 decision over Marcos Baghdatis, losing only eight points in eight service games. Djokovic improved to 28-0 on the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kevin Anderson without dropping serve.

Jurgen Melzer, seeded eighth, was the only seeded player to lose on Wednesday's 11-match schedule. He was beaten 7-6 (10-8), 6-3 by Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

No. 4-seeded Andy Murray dominated the third set for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 win over Gilles Simon while fifth-seeded Robin Soderling topped Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 6-3 and No. 7-seeded Tomas Berdych beat Marcel Granollers 6-4, 6-0.

Also advancing to the third round were Juan Martin del Potro, Michael Llodra, Xavier Malisse and Thomaz Bellucci.