Federer wins opener in Miami

Roger Federer had few real problems as he dispatched unseeded Frenchman Gael Monfils in his opening match at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday.

Making his first appearance in the tournament after being a first-round bye, the top seed made quick work of Monfils in the second round with a 6-3 6-4 win in just over 67 minutes.

Federer broke in the eighth game of the first set for a 5-3 lead before serving out the set. He added an early break in the third game of the second set and maintained the lead to close out the match.

It was the first match for Federer since his surprise loss to Mardy Fish at the Indian Well semi-finals last week.

Also in action on Saturday was sixth seed Andy Roddick, who needed three sets to beat Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki 5-7 6-2 6-4.

Roddick, who had 13 aces, received a stern test from Troicki, saving five break-point chances against him in the decisive set.

“I was fortunate to get out of that one,” Roddick said.

“But to my credit, a couple of break points we played long points and there were rallies, and I didn’t play myself out of them by making an error. I kind of stayed the course.”

Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko had to survive a pair of tiebreaks after going down a set as he outlasted Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 3-6 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/3) while 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied to overcome Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (7/4) 7-5 6-1.

It was a disappointing day though for fifth seed David Ferrer, 13th seed Andy Murray, 14th seed Tommy Robredo and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt as they all crashed out in the second round.

Ferrer went out after a 6-4 7-5 loss to Thomas Johansson while Murray suffered a 6-2 2-6 7-6 (9/7) defeat against Mario Ancic.

Dudi Sela of Israel secured a 7-6 (7/5) win over Robredo while Hewitt was dispatched 6-3 7-6 (7/4) by Jose Acasuso of Argentina.