Swiss maestro Roger Federer opened his bid for his first French
Open title with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over American
Michael Russell in a first round match delayed from Monday due to
rain.
Federer, who was leading 6-4, 4-1 overnight, needed one hour and
45 minutes to crash his? American opponent, firing six aces
and winning 15 out of 21 net approaches on day three at the clay
court Grand Slam in Paris.
"I served well and I played well. I didn't give lot of
opportunities to my opponent," Federer said. "He is not very tall.
And I was able to return his serve and I was able to break him and
it was a solid performance. It was not an extraordinary match but
it was quite difficult because of the weather conditions.
"It is kind of cool today, windy, been raining the last few
days, so we haven't been had much of a chance to hit much tennis
balls."
The 25-year-old world number one will be up against French wild
card Thierry Ascione, who overcame qualifier Marin Cilic of Croatia
6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in 93 minutes.
"I think I played against him once before. I haven't seen him
for quite a long time. I don't know where he was. Maybe he took
part in other tournaments. But he won convincingly match."
The Swiss is bidding to become the first No. 1 seed to win the
Roland Garros title since Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil won his third
crown in 2001. He made his first appearance in the French capital
as a wild card in 1999 and last year he finished runner-up to
Rafael Nadal of Spain in a four-set final.
Two other top 10 players, 7th seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and
Spanish 9th seed Tommy Robredo also notched up their weather-hit
matches.
Ljubicic avoided his 16th first round exit at a major
championship by knocking out French favorite Arnaud Clement 6-1,
7-5, 7-6(2) while the 25-year-old Robredo cruised past Argentine
Sergio Roitman 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 56 minutes.
Robredo, the 2003 and 2005 Roland Garros quarterfinalist, will
next meet Greek qualifier Konstantinos Economidis, who recorded his
first career win at a Grand Slam in three appearances over Chris
Guccione of Australia.
A total of 60 men's singles matches were scheduled to be played
on Tuesday, after only four first round ties were completed on the
first two days.
Tuesday's winners also include Argentine Guillermo Canas, the
No.19 seed who beat Federer twice on hard courts in March this
year. He made light work of Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-1, 6-4
for a place in the second round against Simone Bolelli.
Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seeded 11th, came through one of
three all-French first round? matches, when he beat compatriot
Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. World number 108 Mahut has now made
six successive first round exit at the tournament.
Elsewhere, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, Argentine David
Nalbandian, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Russians Mikhail Youzhny
and Dmitry Tursunov also scored their opening wins.
(Xinhua News Agency May 30, 2007)