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FEDERER AUSTRALIAN OPEN serving

Day 2 Round-Up: Federer cruises, Gasquet crashes


Defending champion Roger Federer opened his Flushing Meadows account with a convincing first round victory on Tuesday.

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Roger Federer crushed Argentine Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 in his opening match in New York.

Roger Federer should have another easy task ahead of him in round two when he faces Brazilian qualifier Thiago Alves.

“I am very happy to be back healthy, playing well and winning the first round is always great fun,” Federer said. “I am looking forward to more like that.”

The big shock of day two was the departure of unpredictable Frenchman Richard Gasquet, the 12th seed going down in five sets to Germanys Tommy Haas 6-7, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2.

Twenty-second seed Tomas Berdych also crashed out, losing easily 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 to American Sam Querrey.

They were the only two mens seeds to go out, though, as Tommy Robredo, Ivo Karlovic, Igor Andreev, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Fernando Gonzalez, Andreas Seppi and Fernando Verdasco all won.

In the womens event, top seed Ana Ivanovics recent poor form continued but she managed to survive a scare against Russian Vera Dushevina before winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.

“I dropped my concentration,” said Ivanovic, who has been suffering with a thumb injury lately.

From 2-3 in the decider, the world No.1 finally got her game together, though, and goes on to face Julie Coin from France in round two.

Eleventh seed Daniela Hantuchova was the biggest casualty in the womens draw on day two.

The Slovak stunner and 11th seed went out 6-4, 6-2 to Anna-Lena Groenefeld from Germany.

Elsewhere, there were wins for fourth seed Serena Williams, who hammered Ukraines Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 6-4 and seventh seeded Venus, who powered past Aussie Sam Stosur 6-2, 6-3.

The sisters are scheduled for a quarter-final showdown if they both keep progressing.

In-form Russian Dinara Safina also made it into the second round without much fuss courtesy of a 6-3, 6-4 result against Kristie Ahn from the US.

Fellow seeds Nadia Petrova, Agnes Szavay, Dominika Cibulkoa, Flavia Pennetta, Alona Bondarenko, Nicole Vaidisova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Alize Cornet and Ai Sugiyama all went through.


Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.