May 16, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1429

HAMBURG (Germany), May 15: Roger Federer began the defence of his Hamburg Masters title with an effortless 6-1, 6-3 victory over Jarkko Nieminen on Wednesday, while Rafael Nadal battled to beat Italy’s Potito Starace 6-4, 7-6.

The top two in the world were joined in the third round by the man fast coming up behind them, Novak Djokovic. The third seeded Serb was just as impressive as Federer in beating Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-3 6-1, in the day’s final match.

Federer, who beat Nadal in last year’s final to win the Hamburg title for the fourth time, needed just 57 minutes to rack up his ninth straight-sets victory from nine meetings with Finn Nieminen and reach the third round at a stroll.

Nadal had to work a lot harder to beat the unseeded Starace and was lucky to come through the second-set tiebreak 8-6.

Starace double faulted at set-point leading 6-5 in that tiebreak and the Italian immediately put a simple forehand into the net to gift the world number two a match-point.

That was enough for Nadal, who will next face Andy Murray after the British 15th seed won easily against Frenchman Gilles Simon, 6-3, 6-3 out on court one.

Marat Safin, the former world No 1 who had to come through qualifying, maintained his momentum to reach the third round with a 7-5, 6-4 win over ninth seed Tomas Berdych.

That was one of several upsets on day three of the 2.27 million euro ($3.51 million) tournament.

American seventh seed James Blake fell to Serb Janko Tipsarevic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours, while Croat Ivo Karlovic saw off 13th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 3-6, 6-2, 7-6.

Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, the beaten finalist in Rome last week, lost 7-5, 7-5 to Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, while unseeded Swede Robin Soderling beat French 14th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the Australian Open runner-up, 6-2, 7-5.

Wednesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

Second round: 11-Carlos Moya (Spain) bt Olivier Rochus (Belgium) 7-5, 6-3; 3-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) 6-3, 6-1; 2-Rafael Nadal (Spain) bt Potito Starace (Italy) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6); 15-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Gilles Simon (France) 6-3, 6-3; Robin Soderling (Sweden) bt 14-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-2, 7-5; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-1, 6-3; Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) bt Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 7-5, 7-5; Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) bt 13-Tommy Robredo (Spain) 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt 7-James Blake (US) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; Albert Montanes (Spain) bt Jose Acasuso (Argentina) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3; Marat Safin (Russia) bt 9-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 7-5, 6-4; 12-Juan Monaco (Argentina) bt Simone Bolelli (Italy) 6-2, 6-1.

SHOCK EXIT FOR IVANOVIC

ROME: Serbian top seed Ana Ivanovic exited the Italian Open in her first game on Wednesday, losing 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova.

Russian world No 2 Maria Sharapova survived a scare to beat unseeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in her second round match but the other top seeds had less trouble.

Former world No 1 Venus Williams beat Australian Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1 while her fifth-seeded sister Serena also joined Sharapova and Pironkova in the third round with a resounding 6-2, 6-0 win over Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko.

Results: Second round: 2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4; 3-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt Olga Govortsova (Belarus) 6-2, 6-0; Alize Cornet (France) bt 17-Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 6-3, 6-2; 4-Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) bt Flavia Pennetta (Italy) 6-1, 6-4; 5-Serena Williams (US) bt Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-0; Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) bt 1-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) 6-4, 5-7 6-2.—Reuters