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But while top seed Federer cruised through impressively 7-5 6-3 against Italian Daniele Bracchiali, titleholder Nadal needed all his fight as well as a little luck to survive 6-2, 3-6 7-6 (7/2) against Russian Igor Andreev.

This was a startling match in which Nadal was given a time warning for toweling too long, a spectator collapsed when he was serving at 4-4 in the final set, delaying the match for five minutes, and twice when a line judge called the ball out giving Nadal match point, Andreev made successful Hawkeye challenges to get the rally replayed.

Had Nadal been able to capitalise when he got Andreev at love 40 on the Russian's serve at 3-3 in the second set, much may have been different.

Instead Nadal served a double fault at 30-40 in the next game to go 3-5 down and land himself in all sorts of trouble, which worsened when he went a break down at the start of the final set.

Eventually his defensive containing got him through - even though he tried to take the offensive to his opponent more than usual.

"I tried to play further up the court," Nadal said. "But it was not easy."

Federer's progress also contained remarkable moments, including an 11-deuce fourth game in the second set which lasted almost 20 minutes before Bracciali held serve, and a between-the-legs shot from Federer from well behind the baseline which hurtled for a winning pass.