BERN, Switzerland - Roger Federer overcame early problems to beat Portugal's Rui Machado and guide Switzerland to a 2-0 lead in the Davis Cup on Friday.
Federer's service was broken twice in the opening set by the 93rd-ranked Machado before he recovered to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in the Group I second round match.
"I guess I struggled early on and Machado played good tennis and deserved to win the first set," Federer said.
It was Federer's first match since losing in the Wimbledon quarter-finals to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last week, and his first on hard courts since April.
"I don't want to say I underestimated the conditions. It's again a surface change ... it's very different to Wimbledon," he said.
Earlier Friday, Federer's Olympics gold medal-winning doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka beat Frederico Gil 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.
Federer and Wawrinka are scheduled to face Gil and Leonardo Tavares in Saturday's doubles rubber.
The winning nation advances to a playoff in September with a chance to join the 16-nation world group.
Federer's first Davis Cup match in almost two years meant he met International Tennis Federation eligibility rules for the 2012 London Olympics events being played at Wimbledon.
The noisy home fans in an 8,000 crowd — most dressed in red and some swinging traditional Swiss cowbells — had occasional uneasy moments as Federer made twice as many unforced errors as Machado.
Federer served to open the match and lost the game after sending two miscued backhand topspin shots long.
The third-ranked Swiss broke back in the fourth game but fell behind 5-6 when Machado seized his third break point chance with a forehand cross-court winner.
In the second set, Federer punched the air and shouted "Come on!" when he broke Machado's serve to lead 3-1.
Federer took the opening game of the third on the Portuguese's serve, and shouted encouragement to himself again when overturning a 0-40 deficit on his serve to lead 3-1.
He saved a break point at 5-4 with a service Machado could not return, then clinched the set with another service winner.
Federer ended the match with an ace before conducting the crowd in a victory celebration.
"I really enjoyed myself out there," he said. "I was happy at the end that we got the second point for Switzerland."
