Federer reached the last three finals at Roland Garros, but the clay-court major remains the only one of the four Grand Slam tournaments he hasn’t won.
Against Acasuso, Federer was far from his best. But after losing seven straight games at the end of the second set and beginning of the third, the second-seeded Swiss reeled off five straight to force another tiebreaker.
“Of course, I’m thrilled to be through,” said Federer, who saved four set points in the first tiebreaker. “It was sort of a fun match to be part of with so many ups and downs.”
Federer was in danger of ending his record 19 straight Grand Slam semifinal appearances, but the 13-time major champion won the third set and dominated the fourth.
“Mentally I’ve always been very strong, but I’m not being put in a position like this very often,” Federer said. “So it was good to win both breakers.”
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The last time Federer lost before the semifinals was the 2004 French Open, when he fell in the third round.
Andy Roddick made it to the third round of the French for the first time since 2001, beating 85th-ranked Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (2).
Nine U.S. men entered the clay-court Grand Slam tournament, and Roddick is the only one who made it out of the second round.
Roddick hadn’t won a match at the French Open since 2005. He retired from his first-round match in 2006 with an injury, lost in the first round in 2007, and missed last year’s tournament with a shoulder injury.
Minar never has reached the third round of a major championship. He fell to 0-13 against players ranked in the top 10.
In other action, fifth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 7-5, 6-0.
No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, No. 10 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, No. 11 Gael Monfils of France and No. 16 Tommy Robredo of Spain also advanced.
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