Roger Federer overcomes sore hand to advance at Australian Open

Melbourne: The mystery affliction that affected a finger, or fingers, on Roger Federer's right hand had still not been solved more than an hour after he seen off a spirited performance from Italian journeyman Simone Bolelli at the Australian Open on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old Swiss had just been blasted off the court in the first set by the 29-year-old journeyman when he sought treatment on his hand.

Federer said it did not look like a blister and he had thought he may have been stung by a bee, but was still examining his hand after the 3-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory.

"I don't know what that thing is," the 17-time grand slam winner told reporters in a media conference while staring intently at the tips of his fingers. "It's the weirdest thing.

"I feel it on the tip of my finger. Just felt really odd starting after the break, and for three, four games, it was the funniest feeling I have.

"I feel like it's numb and swollen.

"Actually it went away, but now I feel it again. I don't know what the feeling is."

Federer declined to have the finger taped by medical staff because it would have just looked "bigger and weird".

"You can't see anything," he said laughing while staring intently at his hand.

"But it is definitely swollen and it's funny. I don't know what it is. As long as it's not getting bad, it's okay."

Federer and Bolelli had hammered away at each other in the first set, with the Italian seizing his one, and only, service break opportunity to seal it in 33 minutes.

The setback seemed to have galvanised Federer, who was never bothered on his own serve again and converted five of 11 opportunities over the next three sets to run out a comfortable winner in the end and set up a third round clash with Andreas Seppi

"I'm happy I'm still in the tournament, because there for a while today it wasn't looking very good because Bolelli was playing very well," Federer said.

"It's always a good feeling fighting your way out of a match, like now, and winning the last three sets convincingly and actually playing really positive tennis.

"I had to do some adjustments because he was doing things very well. By figuring things out, it's a great feeling to have once you've got it (because) then you're able to play consistently well."