Federer meets pope, wins match

By Bill Scott May 10, 2006, 23:38 GMT

Swiss tennis player Roger Federer in action during his match against Potito Starace of Italy , Wednesday 10 May, 2006. Federer won 6-3, 7-6. EPA/ROBERTO TEDESCHI

Rome - Roger Federer, fresh from an uplifting visit to Pope Benedict XVI, held off Italian outsider Potito Starace to squeeze into the third round of the 2.08-million-euro Rome Masters 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) Wednesday.

Hours after a morning audience with the German-born pope, the world number 1 moved onto the clay and the lion's den at Foro Italico.

'It was a very emotional day,' said Federer, who battled for one hour, 50 minutes as a home crowd fired up his unheralded opponent.

'It was very nice and a big honour to meet the pope,' said the Swiss. 'They told him who I was and we shook hands and exchanged a few words in German.'

Federer admitted that he couldn't deduce how much the new pontiff actually followed the sport, but in the heat of the moment, it didn't seem to matter.

'It was special of course, I am Catholic. This was just the perfect day.'

Rafael Nadal produced his own inspiration as he ran his clay-court winning streak to 49, four off the all-time record of Guillermo Vilas from 1977.

He did it over Italian Filippo Volandri in an easy 6-1, 6-2.

Federer found himself fighting to stay in control against the 81st-ranked Starace after sweeping to a 5-1 lead.

The underdog's shots suddenly began to tell and the top seed needed four set points to lock up the opener.

In the second, Starace made a match of it, exchanging breaks in the sixth and seventh games and taking his first lead, 5-4.

But once into the tiebreak, Federer's superb record in deciders came to the fore.

'I knew that playing an Italian in Rome would be difficult. I had to beat Starace, he wouldn't beat himself,' said the winner.

'After my great start maybe the match seemed a bit close, but I'm happy the way I played and I'm glad to get the win.'

Argentine David Nalbandian, the fourth seed, continued his winning momentum from last weekend's title performance, ploughing into the third round 6-2, 6-4 over Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Nalbandian claimed his first title of the season three days ago when he beat Nikolay Davydenko for the Estoril trophy on clay.

Fifth seed Andy Roddick began fortifying his clay as he advanced in a patchy 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis.

Victory for the American, at best a modest force on clay in Europe, provided revenge for his January defeat against the Australian Open finalist from Cyprus.

Roddick, playing on European clay for the first time this season, improved to 4-1 on the surface in 2006 after competing last month in Houston.

'Neither one of us had our best stuff by any means,' said the former number 1. 'I served absolutely terribly for the first set and a half, two sets.'