Federer makes a smooth start

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Roger Federer made a victorious start to the grass court tennis season with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the first round of the ATP event here on Tuesday.

The top-seeded Swiss superstar, five times a champion here, prevailed in 1hr 03min to set up a second-round match with either Colombia’s Alejandro Falla or Israeli qualifier Noam Okun.
Federer is seeking to bounce back after falling to Sweden’s Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals at last week’s French Open and losing his world number one crown to eventual Paris champion Rafael Nadal.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion typically uses the Halle event as a tune-up event for Wimbledon, where he will this year seek to win a record-equalling seventh singles title on the south-west London grass.
Russian second seed Nikolay Davydenko beat Germany’s Simon Greul 7-6 (1), 6-0, but third-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia fell 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to German Nicolas Kiefer. Austrian sixth seed Jurgen Melzer, a surprise semifinalist at Roland Garros, overcame the loss of the first set against Russia’s Alexandre Kudryavtsev to win 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Next up for Kohlschreiber is Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, who defeated lucky loser Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Eighth seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia entered the third round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands.
Nadal, Roddick & Murray in cruise mode
London: Rafael Nadal showed no signs of a hangover from his French Open triumph as the Spaniard defeated Marcos Daniel 6-2, 6-2 in the second round at the Queen’s Club on Wednesday.
Nadal took no time at all to find his feet again on grass as he unleashed two ferocious winners from the back of the court to break in Daniel’s first service game. The Spaniard was completely in control after that as he cruised through the remainder of the match.
On Tuesday, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick whacked away the clay from their tennis shoes and began their build up to Wimbledon by beating lesser-known opponents.
Murray, who last year became the first Briton to win the title in 71 years here, kicked off his grass court campaign with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Spaniard Ivan Navarro while Roddick was at his ruthless best in a 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Russia’s Igor Kunitsyn.
“I just managed to get him in the tiebreak but it was definitely tough,” said Murray.
Roddick, who like Murray took an early flight out of Paris, barely gave anyone a chance to admire Kunitsyn’s game as he blew away his luckless challenger in 50 scorching minutes.
Sixth seed Gael Monfils went down 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 to German Rainer Schuettler. His compatriot Richard Gasquet avoided the same fate with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Rajeev Ram of US. —Agencies