Pospisil had notched his first tour-level victory Tuesday against Juan Ignacio Chela to set up a second-round meeting with his idol, and managed to hold his own against the two-time Rogers Cup champion through the first 11 games of the match.
But Federer capitalised on his first break point to secure the opening set, and then broke open a 3-0 lead to start the second, proving enough for the victory. The Swiss won 85 per cent of his service points.
"For me it was important to have role models to look up to, such as (Pete) Sampras and (Stefan) Edberg and so forth," Federer said after beating Pospisil.
"Then to be able to also play Pete at Wimbledon was very big in my career, it gave me a huge lift to be able to play in a big stadium against a big player — and I hope it does the same for him."
Federer said he was impressed with Pospisil's performance.
"He had good variation on his serve," he said. "It was somewhat tricky getting to know his patterns a bit more."
Federer, who celebrated his 30th birthday Monday, is playing his first tournament since a five-set loss in the Wimbledon quarter-finals (l. to Tsonga) and improves to a 40-8 season mark.
He will have a chance to avenge that Wimbledon defeat in the next round, when he encounters Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the seventh time. The No. 13 seed fired 15 aces to defeat Australian wild card Bernard Tomic 6-3, 7-6(1).
Tsonga trails Federer 2-4 in the head-to-head series, but his other victory over the Swiss came two years ago at this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.
Date: 10.08.2011, Source: ATP & Canadian Press
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