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		</div><p>Roger Federer toasted his comeback after 14 months battling knee injuries by battling past Britain’s Dan Evans 7-6 (10/8) 3-6 7-5 at the Qatar Open.</p>
<p>Swiss great Federer was forced to grind all the way by his recent training partner Evans, with the 30-year-old from Birmingham even saving a match point.</p>
<p>But 39-year-old Federer was not to be denied victory on his big return, having fought off two knee surgeries to return to ATP tour action.</p>
<p>The 20-time Grand Slam champion had not played since his straight-sets defeat to Novak Djokovic in the 2020 Australian Open.</p>
<p>Federer mixed signs of rust with moments of magic, eventually just pulling home to book a quarter-final meeting with Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili.</p>
<p>The three-time Qatar champion was handed a bye to the second round and a clash with Evans, who battled past French veteran Jeremy Chardy in the opening round.</p>
<p>Evans, 30, had lost all three of his previous career meetings with Federer but had taken a set each time and was banking on being a different proposition due to his improvement during Federer’s time away.</p>
<p>Federer showed few signs of rust in an entertaining opening set in which neither player gave his opponent much of a chance behind his respective first serve.</p>
<p>Pushed into a tie-break, it looked like the Swiss star who would falter first, a pair of uncharacteristic errors helping Evans win four points in a row to establish a 4-2 lead.</p>
<p>But the favourite proved he had lost none of his nerve, fighting back to level then taking advantage of his third set point opportunity with a sweeping backhand pass down the line to take the tie-break 10-8.</p>
<p>Evans looked a little more wobbly on his own serve at the start of the second set but managed to survive and pounced on a series of errors from Federer in the fourth game of the set, seizing his first break-point opportunity to go 3-1 in front.</p>
<p>Federer rallied but Evans proved equal to the challenge, looking confident from the back of the court as he served out to take the second set 6-3 and take the match into a decider.</p>
<p>Evans dug out a fine service hold to make it 3-3 in the final set, before Federer fended off two break points in the next game.</p>
<p>Federer forced a match point with Evans serving to stay in the contest, only for the Brit to hold under major pressure and continue the intriguing battle.</p>
<p>At the last however, Federer was able to pull away – breaking Evans to seal the set and the match.</p>
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