In his first WTA tournament after losing in the semifinals of the U.S. Open to eventual champion Marin Cilic, Roger Federer won by a close shave in his opening match at the Shanghai Rolex Masters in China on Wednesday evening.

A thrilling end to a busy day at the Qizhong Forest Sports City Arena in Shanghai as third seeded Federer treated the crowd to an epic three set battle against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.

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The 17-time Grand Slam champion opened up to take the first set with five service breaks against the 27-year-old Argentine but was broken back in the first game of the second set to level the match at one apiece.

In the third and deciding set, either player wants to give up on their serves as they put the match into overtime at 6-all.

The tie-break was a classic Federer encounter as he saved five match points to eventually come out on top 7-5 3-6 7(9)-6(7) in a match that lasted two hours and 42 minutes.

The former World No. 1 Federer will now face 14^th seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain in the third round who defeated Canadian Vasek Pospisil in a three set encounter earlier.

Federer, 33, has won three tournaments this year in Dubai, Germany and the more recent Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati.

The Swiss already clinched a spot at the year-ending WTA World Tour Finals in London. He has the most titles in the event with six and his last win was in 2011 against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who unfortunately is currently 12^th on the eight-man short list and would most likely not make it this year.

Federer has collected a total of 80 titles, third on the list after Jimmy Conners and Ivan Lendl, and hopes to add another Masters 1000 cup to his name.

TagsJimmy Conners, Ivan Lendl, Roberto Bautista Agut, Marin Cilic, Roger Federer