Federer needs to rally for first-round win

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- World No. 2 Roger Federer needed to rally for a three-set win Monday in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Federer, the event's defending champion and No. 2 seed, came from behind for a 5-7, 0-6, 6-2 win over No. 128-ranked Malek Jaziri.

Federer failed to finish off any of his three first-set break chances while Jaziri got a break in the 11th game and took the set. However, Federer quickly evened the match, losing only 12 points in the second-set shutout and dropping only three points on serve and getting two breaks in finishing off the win.

Seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi defeated Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-3, 7-5 with six breaks and No. 8-seeded Mikhail Youzhny stopped Blaz Kavcic 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 in first-round matches by winning 58 percent of the points over the last two sets.

Also Monday Roberto Bautista-Agut beat David Goffin 6-2, 7-5; Lukas Rosol topped Matteo Viola 6-3, 7-5; Somdev Devvarman raced past Igor Kunitsyn 6-1, 6-4; and Daniel Brands got by Florent Serra 7-6 (9-7), 6-4.