He stepped up the pace in the opening tiebreak to bag it 7-2, suffered a 7-4 reverse in the second then wiped his forehead in relief as he stroked an elegant backhand winner down the line to claim the third 7-5.

Predictably, Federer said people should not read too much into the match.

"Win or lose, it wouldn't have changed very much," said Federer, who went on to claim the Australian Open title 12 months ago despite his early hiccup in Kooyong.

"Playing such a long match gives me a lot of information for what I could do better, what's already in place.

"I was so close to losing. But it still feels always better to come off as a winner and kind of turn it around when I had to.

"I thought it was tough conditions, windy, hot and everything. So I think that's what really evened out this match today."

Federer will next run into 2005 Melbourne Park champion Marat Safin, who overcame Argentine David Nalbandian 5-7 6-1 6-2.

Roddick by contrast fired eight aces as he wrapped up his match against Haas in just 66 minutes.

"It felt good. I've been hitting the ball very well in practice the last couple of days, so it's nice to have that translate into a match," said Roddick, who will probably have to plot his Open campaign without coach Jimmy Connors.

The eight-times grand slam winner is unlikely to join Roddick in Australia following the death of his mother, Gloria, in Illinois on Tuesday.

The Kooyong eight-man exhibition tournament serves up as a warm-up for the season's opening grand slam, which begins on Monday.