Federer beats Connors' Slam record at French Open

Roger Federer set a new record of 234 Grand Slam match wins on Wednesday when he overcame a mid-match wobble to beat Romania's Adrian Ungur 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 6-3 and reach the French Open third round.

Federer had already equalled Jimmy Connors' mark of 233 wins at the majors in his opening round victory against Germany's Tobias Kamke on Monday.

The 16-time Grand Slam title winner now stands at 234 victories against just 35 defeats in his majors career.

The Swiss third seed will face either Slovakia's Martin Klizan or Nicolas Mahut of France for a place in the last 16.

Despite his third set hiccup, Federer said he always backed himself to win.

"I expect myself to win and I usually manage to do it. It's not like that at the start of your career when you think you are good enough but you are not that good yet," said Federer.

The 27-year-old Ungur, the world number 92, knocked out Argentine veteran David Nalbandian in the first round on his Grand Slam debut, having failed to qualify for any major on 13 previous occasions.

He was swept aside in the first two sets on Wednesday, his failure to win a point against the serve in the second set highlighting the daunting challenge he was facing.

But he suddenly rallied in the third, slashing his error count and even carving out two set points in the 10th game which Federer saved.

Ungur then saved two match points in the tiebreaker before he stayed alive by reeling off four points in a row and taking the set when Federer dumped a backhand drive into the net.

That was about as good as it got for the Romanian who was made to pay for wasting two break points in the first game of the fourth set.

Federer, playing in his 50th straight Grand Slam event, held and broke for 2-0 before eventually sealing the tie in the ninth game when Ungur slapped a backhand return wide.