Federer battles past Dzumhur into third round

For the second time, Swiss ace Roger Federer needed to step up the gear to win another round at the US Open.

Like it happened on Monday, the record Grand Slam winner shook off a slow start to defeat Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and reach the third round on a rainy Wednesday when showers wiped out most matches.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion struggled early but battled back to dispatch 99th-ranked Dzumhur 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 under the roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The 38-year-old Swiss third seed, who also dropped the first set against Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal in his opener, answered the wake-up call after conceding the first set with 17 unforced errors.

“When it happens like this, back-to-back matches, it’s just a bit frustrating more than anything, especially when the level is that low and there is that many errors and the energy is not kind of there,” Federer said. “But can only do better, which is a great thing moving forward.

“I didn’t expect to hit 15 to 20 unforced errors, which is basically the entire set just sort of donated… I clearly have to play better from the get-go.”

Five-time US Open winner Federer, who lost to top-ranked Novak Djokovic in last month’s epic five-set Wimbledon final, broke early in each of the last three sets and held serve to advance.

“I buckled down and told myself I was going to hang tough and not get broken and that made a big difference,” Federer said.

“I’m not concerned. I just need to take the positives out of it, because once I lose that first set I do get better, which is a good thing.”

Next in Federer’s path is the winner between French 25th seed Lucas Pouille and Britain’s 58th-ranked Dan Evans.