Duo cruise into Doha second round

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:58

In his first ATP World Tour match of the season, world number one Federer was in a ruthless mood against Belgium’s Christophe Rochus.

Federer, who will face Russia’s Evgeny Korolev in the second round, needed less than an hour to defeat Rochus 6-1 6-2.

Nadal began his season by lifting the trophy at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and he again demonstrated his impressive form in a 6-3 6-3 victory over Simone Bolelli.

One of the most popular victories of the day went to Moroccan wild card Younes El Aynaoui, who defeated US qualifier Ryler DeHeart 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (7/4).

The 38-year-old, who has already indicated he will retire following this tournament, became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour match since a 42-year-old Jimmy Connors in Halle in 1995.

El Aynaoui, who did not play at all last year, has five main tour singles titles to his name and reached his career-high ranking of 14 in 2003.

He will next face another qualifier, Belgium’s Steve Darcis, who beat eighth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4 6-1 today.

In other first-round matches, Andreas Seppi defeated Oscar Hernandez 6-4 7-5 and Lukasz Kubot was a 6-0 6-2 winner against Egyptian wild card Karim Maamoun.

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