Fed Express off to a flyer in Paris

ROGER FEDERER hailed yesterday’s straight-sets win over world number 71 Peter Luczak as the “perfect” way to begin the defence of his French Open title.

The Swiss star was rarely troubled in a 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory on Philippe Chatrier Court, which set up a second-round match with Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.

World number one Federer believes the cakewalk was the ideal start to what he hopes will be two-week stay at Roland Garros.

“The beginning is always important, coming back as defending champion and trying to get off to a good start,” he said.

“I served well. I never really got a chance on my serve, so I was pretty relaxed.

“I finally got a chance again at 5-4, so it was a good first set for me, without any hiccups on my own serve. After that, things were a bit easier.

“I could relax a bit more, and then the scoreline changed and towards the end I played some great drop shots.

“So it was a perfect match to get off to in the French Open campaign.”

Andy Murray produced a repeat of his epic Wimbledon comeback against Richard Gasquet to avoid crashing out in the first round.

Murray’s nightmare draw looked like living up to its billing when Gasquet led by two sets and a break on Suzanne Lenglen Court.

But, as in their last meeting in the fourth round at SW19 two years ago, the infamously fragile Frenchman suffered a spectacular collapse as fourth seed Murray won 4-6 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-2 6-1 in four hours and four minutes.

Novak Djokovic admitted to a little bit of ring-rust after surviving a second-set wobble to record a four-set victory over Evgeny Korolev.

The third seed and former Australian Open champion won 6-1 3-6 6-1 6-3 on Suzanne Lenglen Court to book a meeting with Kei Nishikori.

Djokovic looked like steamrollering Korolev after racing to a set and a break lead.

But the Serbian lost six of the next seven games as his opponent – a cousin of Anna Kournikova – went for broke, especially on his forehand.

That was as good as it got for the world number 73 as Djokovic regained his stranglehold.

The 23-year-old said: “I haven’t played a real match since Rome this year, I think.

“I knew it was going to be a little bit of a different feeling stepping on the court and playing a match rather than practising.

“I had ups and downs. I didn’t play a good second set, but I overcame it.”

Feliciano Lopez became the second seeded casualty in the men’s draw when the famously clay-shy Spaniard was dumped out 6-1 7-6 (7/5) 6-2 by Julian Reister. He was followed by four-time quarter-finalist and former world number five Tommy Robredo, the 21st seed crushed 6-4 6-4 6-3 by Viktor Troicki.

A hat-trick of Spanish shocks was avoided when 19th seed Nicolas Almagro came from two sets to one down to beat Robin Haase 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7/3) 6-4.

Otherwise, the day belonged to Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko, who finally saw off American Michael Yani in a match carried over from yesterday.

At four hours and 56 minutes, the contest was the joint-longest in the Open era at Roland Garros, Lacko winning 4-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/4) 6-7 (5/7) 12-10 to set up a clash with 11th seed Mikhail Youzhny.

Gael Monfils, the 13th seed, kept the home fans happy with a four-set win over Dieter Kindlmann, the German doing well to go down 6-3 7-5 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 after being called up as a ‘lucky loser’ following the withdrawal of Florian Mayer.

Twelfth seed Fernando Gonzalez beat Brazil’s Thiago Alves 6-2 4-6 6-4 6-4 and Victor Hanescu (31) saw off Oscar Hernandez 6-1 1-6 6-4 6-3.

The rest of the seeds all progressed in straight sets.

Ivan Ljubicic (14) shook off Yen-Hsun Lu, Tomas Berdych (15) beat Jorge Aguilar, John Isner (17) eased past Andrey Golubev, Stanislas Wawrinka (20) knocked out Jan Hajek, Thomaz Bellucci ended the hopes of Michael Llodra while Marcos Baghdatis (25) sent home Jesse Witten.