Federer battles through winds and Stepanek

MELBOURNE, Jan 10 (Reuters) Swirling winds almost blew apart Roger Federer's Australian Open preparations today.

The Swiss world number one needed more than two and a quarter hours to squeeze past Czech Radek Stepanek 7-6 6-7 7-6 at the invitational Kooyong Classic as a gusting breeze played havoc with Federer's service rhythm.

Andy Roddick faced no such problems and enjoyed a swift 6-2 6-3 work out against Germany's Tommy Haas in a repeat of last year's final.

British teenager Andy Murray only lost one more game than the American as he avenged his Doha final defeat at the weekend with a 6-4 6-2 win over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.

Federer, playing his first match of the season, would have hoped for an easier outing on a steamy day in Melbourne but had to dig deep to pull out the victory.

At least Federer would be relieved to stay in contention for the Kooyong title as he fell at the first hurdle 12 months ago.

He stepped up the pace in the opening tiebreak to bag it 7-2, suffered a 7-4 reverse in the second then wiped his forehead in relief as he stroked an elegant backhand winner down the line to claim the third 7-5.

Predictably, Federer said people should not read too much into the match.

''Win or lose, it wouldn't have changed very much,'' said Federer, who went on to claim the Australian Open title 12 months ago despite his early hiccup in Kooyong.

''Playing such a long match gives me a lot of information for what I could do better, what's already in place.

''I was so close to losing. But it still feels always better to come off as a winner and kind of turn it around when I had to.

TOUGH CONDITIONS ''I thought it was tough conditions, windy, hot and everything.

So I think that's what really evened out this match today,'' he added.

Federer will next run into 2005 Melbourne Park champion Marat Safin, who overcame Argentine David Nalbandian 5-7 6-1 6-2.

Roddick by contrast fired eight aces as he wrapped up his match against Haas in just 66 minutes.

''It felt good. I've been hitting the ball very well in practice the last couple of days, so it's nice to have that translate into a match,'' said Roddick, who will probably have to plot his Open campaign without coach Jimmy Connors.

The eight-times grand slam winner is unlikely to join Roddick in Australia following the death of his mother, Gloria, in Illinois yesterday.

Murray was encouraged by his performance as he was still feeling a bit under the weather with a throat-tickling cough.

''I'm still coughing a little bit but I feel much better than I did last week,'' said the 19-year-old.

''I think a few more matches in this heat and I'm going to be playing well going into the Australian Open.'' The Kooyong eight-man exhibition tournament serves up as a warm-up for the season's opening grand slam, which begins on Monday.

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