Swiss tennis great Roger Federer encountered more resistance than expected from American teenager Frances Tiafoe in second-round action, but he took full control toward the end to win 7-6, (7-2), 6-3 at the Miami Open here.
Tiafoe showed impressive power in his serve and ground strokes to stay even with the 18-time Grand Slam champion until the tie-breaker, but Federer drew on his experience at that juncture to take the first set on Saturday, reports Efe.
It then appeared the match might remain close when the Swiss played a sloppy service game to drop the opening game of the second set.
But after Tiafoe did not get a single break point in the opening set, the 19-year-old American was broken twice in the second set as the match slipped away from him.
With the victory, the fourth-seeded Federer ran his current winning streak to seven matches and will next take on either big-hitting Argentine Juan Martin del Potro or the Netherlands' Robin Haase in the third round.
In other second-round men's singles action, top-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka defeated Argentine Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 6-4, and promising German teenager Alexander Zverev, the No. 16 seed, routed Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun 6-0, 6-3.
--IANS
gau/vt
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