Roger Federer and Djokovic through at Roland Garros

The 39-year-old Swiss brushed Cilic aside in a one-sided first set but lost the second after a heated debate with the chair umpire over the time he was taking to towel down before Cilic served knocked him out of his stride.

Twice Federer has played big-serving Cilic in Grand Slam finals, winning both, and the duo’s 11th career meeting produced some high-octane tennis in a pivotal third set.

Cilic looked dangerous when he battled back from a break down but Federer raised his game in the tiebreak to move ahead.

A Cilic double fault gifted eighth-seed Federer a break for 3-1 in the fourth set and there was no way back from there.

Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Federer, who had played only three matches in 17 months coming into Roland Garros, closed out the match in clinical fashion to set up a third-round against Germany’s 59th-ranked Dominik Koepfer.

Earlier, world number one Novak Djokovic put on a clinical display to stroll past Uruguyan Pablo Cuevas 6-3 6-2 6-4 and reach the third round.

Cuevas, ranked 92nd, showed flashes of resistance against the 34-year-old Serbian but the top seed raised his game when he needed to and produced some sublime winners off his backhand to keep alive his chase for a 19th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic broke Cuevas’ serve a second time to go up 5-3 in the opening set but found himself 0-40 down on his own serve. The Serbian, however, grabbed the next five points to seal the lead on a sunlit Suzanne Lenglen court.

The 35-year-old Cuevas’s challenge fell away as Djokovic broke his opponent’s serve three more times to complete the win and set up a clash against Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis, who beat Australian James Duckworth 7-5 2-6 7-6(4) 6-0.

REUTERS