rogerfederer.com - A successfull start

A successfull start

Roger had to work rather hard to defeat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in three sets in their opening match at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne this afternoon. Roger took over two hours to prove victorious, 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5).

"I came here last year from winning Doha," said Roger. "I'm trying to find my way into the new year. Win or lose, this match would not have changed much. But it's always nicer to come up a winner. I turned it around when I had to."

Playing his first match of the 2007 season, Roger would certainly have hoped for an easier outing on a steamy day in Melbourne. He recovered after losing a break which had given him a 3-3 scoreline in the final set, staging a rally from 2-5 down in the final-set tiebreaker.

By the way, Stepanek is engaged to Swiss star Martina Hingis. Roger next plays against  former Australian Open champion Marat Safin of Russia, who beat Argentina's David Nalbandian in an earlier match.<o:p></o:p>

Roger has also joined the chorus of players calling for the Australian Open to be pushed back on the calendar. "It would be nice if the Australian Open would be a bit later because if that would happen we would have a bit more time in the off-season," Roger said. "But because the first grand slam is just around the corner basically, that's why we don't have any rest - if it would be in March we could take a rest."