PARIS, May 28: Roger Federer survived a French Open second round scare on Thursday when unheralded Argentine Jose Acasuso threw away a golden opportunity to cause a major Roland Garros sensation. [break]
World number two Federer, claimed a 7-6 (10/8), 5-7, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2 win but Acasuso was left to regret wasting four set points in the opening set and another in the third where he twice served for a 2-1 lead.
Acasuso, who has only progressed beyond the second round of a Grand Slam once in 28 attempts, cut a weary figure by the end, worn down as much by his own physical shortcomings as the Swiss star´s pinpoint hitting.
Federer, the runner-up to Rafael Nadal here for the past three years and still missing a French Open from his 13-title Grand Slam collection, now faces either French 32nd seed Paul-Henri Mathieu or Pablo Andujar of Spain for a place in the last 16.
Acasuso broke first to lead 4-2 before Federer immediately hit back.
The Argentinian then squandered four set points in the first set tiebreaker and Federer made him pay when he secured the opener with a deft drop shot.
Despite going a break down early in the second set, the 26-year-old Acasuso roared back in the third and nipped ahead at 6-5.
He levelled the tie when he drove deep with a crunching forehand which Federer could only push back into the base of the net.
Breaks in the first and third games of the third set gave Acasuso a 4-0 lead although his movement became affected when he twisted his right ankle trying to stretch to a Federer pass in the fifth game.
Acasuso wasted a set point in the eighth game as Federer sped from 1-5 down to 6-5 in front before the South American stopped the rot to take the set into another tiebreaker.
Federer cruised through that and then the fourth set against a shattered Acasuso to keep his Roland Garros campaign on track.
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Venus makes great escape
Venus Williams made a great escape into the French Open last 32 on Thursday while 13th seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli merely made an exhausting list of excuses for her second round defeat.
Williams, the American third seed, who was runner-up to sister Serena in 2002 but had exited at the third round in the last two years, saved a match point in her 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 7-5 win over the Czech Republic´s Lucie Safarova.
The Wimbledon champion had been trailing by a set when the players had been called off court late Wednesday, but she quickly levelled the tie on the resumption.
Safarova then failed to convert a match point on her own serve when 5-4 ahead in the decider and Williams made her pay by breaking the Czech before going on to set-up a third round clash with Hungary´s Agnes Szavay.
Former Wimbledon finalist Bartoli was a second round casualty losing 6-3, 7-5 to experienced Italian Tathiana Garbin.
Bartoli blamed her defeat on a host of problems, from illness to the chilly conditions to the noise made by a small contingent of Italian fans.
"I was a little tired and a little sick, I had a sore throat and my nose is running," said the Frenchwoman.
"It was very cold and the court was heavy. The ball was stuck on the strings and it was very slow."
Bartoli was unimpressed by the attitude of Garbin´s supporters.
"It´s her clan. When I made unforced errors, her team would shout. It´s not sporting. They´re Italians. This is what it´s like."
Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, a semi-finalist in the last two years and who lunched with Serbian President Boris Tadic on Wednesday, continued her untroubled progress with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Slovakia´s Magdalena Rybarikova.
Jankovic will next face Slovakian-born Jarmila Groth, who now plays for Australia.
The 24-year-old Jankovic, who won the Marbella claycourt event in the run-up to Roland Garros, believes weight loss is helping a rejuvenation of the game which took her to the world number one spot last year.
"I´m back to my normal weight. Maybe I had seven kilos more than I have now, which is a lot for me. When you put that kind of weight on, and you are not used to it, it´s tough to move around," she said.
Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2006 runner-up, also eased through to the last 32 beating Galina Voskoboeva 6-0, 6-2 while Danish 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past American veteran Jill Craybas 6-1, 6-4.
