Safin blows Srichaphan away as Federer opens with easy win
The top seed and world No 1 from Switzerland, Federer advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Paul-Henri Mathieu of France at the All England Club.
The 23-year-old, who broke Mathieu five times and was broken just once, is hoping to become just the eighth player to win Wimbledon three years in a row.
“It’s definitely a good start to the tournament,” Federer said. “I think there’s something special when you come back and try to defend the Wimbledon championship. So I’m definitely very happy to have done that. A very important first step.”
Third seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, posted an even easier win, a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 triumph over Belgian Christophe Rochus.
“I’m happy with where I am at the moment. But every match you’re going to have to get better. There’s no doubt that I’m going to play a lot better opponents throughout the tournament,” Hewitt said.
Marat Safin, who is seeded fifth, reached the second round with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand. Also moving on was No 10 Mario Ancic of Croatia. Ancic, who won his first career title Sunday at the Ordina Open, beat German qualifier Tobias Summerer, 6-3, 7-5, 6-1.
French Open quarter-finalist Tommy Robredo of Spain, the 13th seed, was upset by countryman Fernando Verdasco, 6-1, 6-2, 7-5.
Mariano Puerta of Argentina, the 16th seed here after reaching the French Open final, fell meekly to German Lars Burgsmuller, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.
Greg Rusedski eased into the second round at Wimbledon with a 6-3 4-6 6-2 6-1 win over Spain’s Alberto Martin. Other seeded winners were No. 8 Nikolai Davydenko, No 11 Joachim Johansson, No 21 Fernando Gonzalez, No 22 Dominik Hrbaty, No 23 Juan Carlos Ferrero, No 25 Nicolas Kiefer, No 26 Feliciano Lopez and No 31 Mikhail Youznhy.
In the women’s draw, top-seeded American Lindsay Davenport, who has not won a Grand Slam since the 2000 Australian Open, routed Alina Jidkova of Russia, 6-0, 6-2.
The champion of this event in 1999, the 29-year-old Davenport lost in the finals of this year’s Australian Open to Serena Williams and fell to France’s Mary Pierce in straight sets in the quarter-finals at the French Open.
“Obviously, the ultimate goal is to win another slam,” said Davenport, who has won three. “I’ve been really close and haven’t quite got through, but I still feel like I’m knocking on the door. Hard to walk away when you feel like you could achieve the ultimate goal in tennis. While I feel I have that ability, I’m going to stick around.”
Davenport is in the top half of the draw with third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France and No 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia. Davenport could be matched against Belgium’s Kim Clijsters, who is seeded 15th, in the fourth round.
Mauresmo, who lost to Williams in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open but didn’t make it out of the third round of her home country’s grand slam, cruised past Melinda Czink of Hungary, 6-3, 6-2. After getting upset by the unheralded Ana Ivanovic in the French Open, Mauresmo lost to Russian Vera Douchevina in the second round of the warm-up event at Eastbourne last week.
“I was pretty confident about my game,” Mauresmo said. “I had to really forget about last week’s disappointment pretty quickly and go back to practice to make sure all these little things that went wrong in Eastbourne went the right way today.”
Kuznetsova routed wild card Rebecca Llewellyn of Britain, 6-0, 6-1, while Clijsters defeated another Brit, Katie O’Brien, 6-2, 6-3. Elena Dementieva, the sixth seed from Russia, also advanced, posting a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Czech Iveta Benesova.
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