After a rare glimpse of soft underbelly in the previous game, Roger Federer's serve is righted and rolls through Lu like a tank.

The first two sets have followed a distinct template.

1. Lu starts well, suggests he might take Federer into tie-break territory.

2. Federer suddenly finds another gear to snatch Lu's serve and then lock it up tight.

This one is staying true to the trend. Lu holds again. Will the prospect of some overtime, get Federer to knuckle down once again?

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Australia cricket captain Steve Smith is in the posh seats today, bringing a nice bit of neckwear to the open-collar president's box.

Yen-Hsun Lu is serving up some entertainment for the VIPs, twice taking Federer to break point, but unable to edge over the finishline.

This is some high-grade entertainment.

Roger Federer presses to the net twice in succession. On each occasion Yen-Hsun Lu out-thinks and finds a way around him. 40-0 to the man from Chinese Taipei.

Federer is forced to stay in the backcourt as Lu tugs him left and right in the next point, but produces a steaming winner, almost taking the ball-boy's eyebrows off as he goes round the net post with a forehand.

Lu sees it out, but that was possibly the most fun game in the match so far.

Well, well, well.

A Roger Federer double-fault gives Lu 15-40 and two break-back points. The Rod Laver crowd whisper to each other like homicide-scene rubber-neckers.

They needn't have been concerned. Federer finds the service sweetspot, cranking down some power and putting banana curve on the ball. Back to deuce.

And then Lu plants a backhand wide, Hawk-Eye confirms his miss, and the set is cooked.

A gossamer touch from Roger Federer as he teases a tantalising drop-shot over the net and the back-spin kills it doornail dead. The crowd whoop. Lu puffs his cheeks.

Lu battles hard, saving two break points, but Federer has added some of coach Edberg's hustle into his armoury. The Swiss is crawling all over the front court, cutting off angles and volleying away winners.

The third sticks and Federer serves for the set next.

Plain sailing and the view from the bridge is pretty good for captain Roger Federer.

A hold to love and the home port is almost in view.

Yen-Hsun Lu paints himself into a 0-40 corner and, despite one fizzing forehand cutting off a Federer net charge, there is no way out from there.

Roger boxes off the escape route and edges ahead in the second. And there has been very impression made on his serve so far in this match.

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"To make the shorts shorter is something that I like. I feel more comfortable this way. We make it shorter already last year, and this year a little bit more. I like. I feel more comfortable here, more fresh." Rafael Nadal's thigh-revealing kit is the talk of Melbourne.

"I guess I'm maturing in my old age. Yeah, I'm definitely a late-bloomer. I guess mentally-wise as well, late-bloomer in that department as well." Marinko Matosevic insists he is no longer the 'Mad Dog' ahead of his second-round meeting with Andy Murray.

"I think this is very sort of like philosophical question." Tomas Berdych is asked where he feels he is after a straight-sets win.

"I was talking to my coach and I told him I actually did feel like I won the Australian Open." Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova finally gets a victory at her home Slam at the 10th time of asking.

The shot of the game from Yen-Hsun Lu, a delicious, cascading lob over the top of Roger Federer that splashes down just inside the baseline.

It is all a little incidental though as Federer buries the memory of it beneath four rattled-off points.

Barely a minute on the clock in that game.

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Meanwhile Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, a semi-finalist in Melbourne last year, takes the first set against German opponent Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-2 in 30 minutes.

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Yen-Hsun Lu seems to have got his talons into this set more securely than the last.

He holds again and is clinging to Federer like gum on the sole of his sneaker.

Hawk-Eye get to show off their fancy new graphics - ones that keep the players in the picture as the ball's path is virtually replayed - but it cannot help out Yen-Hsun Lu as his forehand is called long on the opening point.

A 50-pointer for your I-Spy tennis book. A Federer smash wastefully buried into the middle of the net. But nothing for that, as the Swiss gets feline at the net- cat-like reflexes to pat away the final point of the game on the volley.

Former British number one Anne Keothavong:, external So many colourful outfits on day one of the Australian Open. Fed's top is pretty much same colour as the ball. Fair?

Cunning.

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Yen-Hsun Lu is still stubbornly sticking his heels in to prevent this one descending into exhibition territory. After a much-needed sit-down and sip of drink, he holds in the first game of the second set.

Leon Smith
GB Davis Cup captain on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

"The last rally was Roger playing at his best with the sliced backhand, early backhand across court, crunched, for the winner. He can do pretty much everything."

Thirty-two minutes of masterful tennis and wife Mirka, up in the players' box, is among those to clap Roger Federer home to his courtside stool.

The usual silver-service standard from Federer. Tennis with hospital corners and a mint on the pillow.

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In an unusually tight spot at 40-0 down, Roger Federer draws some groans of pleasure from the Rod Laver Arena with a sublime flicked backhand winner off Yen-Hsun Lu's serve.

It is not enough to win the game, but a little reminder that he will serve for the set next.

Just two points lost so far on serve from Roger Federer. He is stroking down some sublime power from the ball toss.

Like a man falling down a ravine, grabbing a branch on his way to the bottom, Yen-Hsun Lu takes a game with some gutsy hitting.

It will be a tougher task to throw this set into reverse and change the momentum on this one.