Miami Open: Roger Federer overcomes spirited Tiafoe for Round 1 win

Roger Federer (left) greets Frances Tiafoe after their first round tie on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Miami: Roger Federer survived a brave challenge from American qualifier Frances Tiafoe before emerging with a 7-6 (7/2) 6-3 victory as he got his Miami Open title bid underway on Saturday.

Tiafoe, ranked 101st in the world, struggled against Federer's serve but was strong on his own and forced a first set tie-break in which the Swiss came out on top. The 19-year-old son of immigrants from Sierra Leone then broke Federer's serve in the first game of the second set only for the 18-times Grand Slam winner to break back twice and run out a comfortable winner in the end.

Solid Wawrinka
Reigning US Open champion Stan Wawrinka got off to a solid start, beating Argentina's Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 6-4 at Crandon Park on Saturday. In the absence of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, the top two ranked players in the world, Wawrinka is the number one seed and is fired up after reaching the final at Indian Wells last week, where he was beaten by Federer.

Radwanska crashes out
Fifth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska's campaign ended after her 0-6, 3-6 defeat to Croatian veteran Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

But second-seed Karolina Pliskova fought past Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-5 6-3 to move into the last 16 and Slovak Dominika Cibulkova also progressed with a comfortable two sets win over Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens.