Federer made to work for victory

Roger Federer had to work harder than expected on Sunday night before beating Victor Hanescu 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-1 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Roger Federer had to work harder than expected on Sunday night before beating Victor Hanescu 6-3 6-7 (5) 6-1 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open. Hanescu won a set from Federer for the first time in their five meetings. But the challenge the Romanian mounted against the worlds top-ranked player by winning the tiebreaker was eroded quickly in the final set.

Federer lost five points while winning the first three games of the final set and just 13 points in all in the 23-minute set. The Swiss star had 10 aces and hit 62 winners to offset 39 unforced errors.

He will face No. 27 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cypress in the third round.

Seventh-seeded Andy Roddick,Federers potential opponent in the quarter-finals,beat qualifier Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-4 6-4. Fourth-seeded Andy Murray beat Andreas Seppi 6-4 6-4 in another second round match. Murray was visibly unhappy with his play throughout the 86-minute match,repeatedly gesturing and talking to himself after errant shots.

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The womens tournament that began with six former champions in the field is down to two following Zheng Jies 6-3 2-6 6-3 win over Maria Sharapova,the 2006 winner. Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark beat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-0 6-3.

Paes,Bhupathi crash out

In doubles,third seeds Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy went down fighting 6-4 3-6 10-6 to the Spanish wild card pair of Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez. Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi,seeded fourth,also crashed out after a 6-4 6-4 loss to Igor Andreev of Russia and Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan.