Roger Federer celebrated his record breaking 161^st consecutive week at number 1 with a less than convincing 7-6(2) 3-6 6-3 victory over Kristian Pless who like himself is a former junior world number 1.

The three-time Dubai champion who looked distinctly ring rusty having not played a competitive match since winning the Australian Open, had been presented with an embellished Waterford crystal for his accomplishment in breaking Jimmy Connors' 30 year record prior to the match.

He took the opening set on a tie-breaker, but soon found himself under pressure when Pless broke him in the fourth game of the second set when he drove a forehand long.

The big serving Dane duly closed out the set 6-3 to rapturous applause from the capacity crowd who were beginning to sniff an upset.

With nonchalant ease, Federer dispelled the doubters when having engineered three consecutive break points in the fourth game of the final set, surged ahead 3-1 as Pless lost his serve for the first time; miscuing a mid-court forehand long and wide.

Serving at 5-3, Federer found himself two match points up, but Pless refusing to quit rifled a two-handed backhand crosscourt pass to save the first, but on the second the Swiss prevailed as the Dane's attempted running single handed backhand pass found the bottom of the net.

"The usual Dubai first round", Federer summised. "It's always rough here for some reason; the court is so quick, there are just no rallies. I just don't want to get frustrated, especially not having played for one month.

"The guy played very well. It's a long time since we played at the US Open juniors in '98 when I won a tough three setter, but he became the junior champion after that. I knew it was going to be tough; I'm just happy that I'm through. Losing my first set of the year doesn't matter much; the way I came through, I'm just really pleased about it."

The unusual number of mishits off both wings was something that federer put down to lack of rhythm.

"I was just trying to get returns back into play and give myself opportunities; it's not like you can say your forehand or backhand is bad because you're not playing any, so that's the worst feeling you can have. All you're trying to do is get the ball back into play, but I couldn't quite do that except in the tie-breaker and a little bit later on. When the ball was in play I thought I was playing ok, but definitely sometimes lack of timing and everything. But the guy played aggressive you know; serve and volleyed when he had to, served well when he had to especially. Maybe if I would have got the early chance in the first set the match would have been different, but I'm happy with the result."

Federer dismissed John McEnroe's recent comments about his rivals being "too nice" and that he and Connors would have got under his skin by agreeing that he would have dealt with them as their great rival Bjorn Borg once did - with nonchalance.

"We have guys that get under each others skin", Federer insisted. "We know them all; he had some of them as well. It's no different today than before. With the way that I've been dominating the last few years it hasn't been happening so often, that's why people want to see me more challenged so they look for ways to try to do that. But in the end I think it's what you do with the racquet that counts not what you do with your words or attitude or whatever, that's not going to get me into any trouble. So I agree with what you were saying about Bjorn Borg (nonchalance in the face of aggression); I think I take it this way."

The 86^th ranked Pless was proud of his performance even if he didn't quite pull off the upset.

"Of course it's fun to play him, he's the best player in the world", he said. "I was a little bit afraid of getting my ass kicked, but fortunately he was not at his best level yet; that's why I was able to keep up."

Pless' belief grew as the match wore on.

"The longer that I got into the match, I started to believe I had a chance to win this. I saved a few break points and started to hold serve more easily. I don't think he was playing at his top (level) today, but I also started to play better and better. Unfortunately, I missed two very easy forehands in the last set and that cost me the match pretty much."

In the final match on stadium court, Fabrice Santoro upset the fourth seeded Tommy Robredo 7-6(6) 6-4; his first win against the Spaniard in six attempts.

Andre Jones

Dubai