'Win or lose, I said I want to play well and have fun. It's going to be tough.

'Hopefully I will serve well. But I'll have to take some risk - hopefully the risks I take will go in (the court).'

With Federer the father of newborn twin girls, Niemeyer - with a young daughter of his own - may have another slim hope. 'Hopefully, he sleeps none,' he said of the Swiss whose family is travelling with a baby nanny and using private jets.

'Hopefully he's a bit off and I'm playing well.'

But Federer will likely be unmoved by the 'plea.' 'I'm happy to be back on Tour and I'm happy (wife) Mirka was willing to join on the long trip. It helped that we flew with NetJets over here. I don't think I would have done it otherwise.

'I don't need nine or ten hours of sleep per night like I used to earlier in my career,' said the Swiss who turned 28 on Saturday. 'I can take six or seven hours and you can nap also.

Elsewhere, Russian Igor Andreev got a victory after 36 minutes when Dmitry Tursunov quit at 5-5 injured. German Rainer Schuettler advanced over Frenchman Florent Serra 6-4, 6-0.