Roger Federer of Switzerland saved three match points in a second-set tiebreaker before overcoming American Andy Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 Tuesday at the Tennis Masters Cup.
Top-ranked Federer extended his winning stretch in round-robin matches at the season-ending championship to 14 and his streak against Roddick to eight.
He's 12-1 career against Roddick, who has not beaten the Swiss star since the semifinals in Montreal in 2003.
Roddick had his chances. He won the first set after breaking in the third game on Federer's double-fault.
Roddick saved three set points in the 10th game of the second set and then had match points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker before Federer won three straight points.
Federer then lost the next two to give Roddick another match point, having to fire a service winner to save. On set point, Roddick leaped high for an overhead and smashed it long.
Having gone so close in the second, a lapse early in the third set cost Roddick the match
Federer got the break serve in the third game and closed out with three aces in the last game, including one down the middle on his second match point.
In the later Red Group match, No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia was to play No. 7 David Nalbandian of Argentina, who're both 0-1 here.
Federer started his quest for a third Masters Cup title with a win over Nalbandian on Sunday, when Roddick accounted for Ljubicic.
In doubles matches Tuesday, Australia's Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe improved to 2-0 in the Red Group with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Israeli pair Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.
Top-ranked Americans Bob and Mike Bryan recovered from an opening upset loss to Erlich-Ram, holding on for a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5) win over Martin Damm of the Czech Republic and India's Leander Paes.
