Roger Federer, the World No1, narrowly avoided a shock second-round exit at the Monte Carlo Masters, as he battled his way past Spanish qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.

Ramirez Hidalgo, ranked 137th in the world, twice served for the match in the third set but Federer hit back to take it to a tie-break, which he won to seal a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1) victory. Although he emerged victorious it was another poor performance from Federer in what has been a season of underachievement.

The Swiss finally won his first tournament of the season in Estoril on Sunday after his final opponent Nikolay Davydenko retired with a leg injury in the second set. But he looked woefully off colour in Monte Carlo, spraying groundstrokes long and wide as he struggled to match Ramirez Hidalgo's level of consistency.

Federer cruised through the first set but lost his serve at the start of the second. Ramirez Hidalgo held his nerve to serve out the remainder of the set to level the contest and then took a firm grip on proceedings with two more breaks of the Federer serve to go 3-0 up in the third.

He served for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 but was unable to hold his nerve as Federer finally raised his game to break twice. The Spaniard showed great spirit to hold his delivery at 5-6 but he had no answer to Federer in the breaker as the Swiss advanced to set up a third-round meeting with Frenchman Gael Monfils, who knocked out 15th seed Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (10-8) 6-1.

Davydenko, seeded four, proved his fitness with a 6-2 7-6 (7-5) victory over Simone Bolelli while fifth seed David Ferrer cruised past former world No1 Marat Safin 6-2 6-3.