BASEL (Switzerland), Oct 21: Roger Federer breezed into the second round of the Swiss Indoors on Tuesday with a 6-1 6-3 win over fellow Swiss Marc Rosset.
Rosset, the world number 117 and Federer’s Davis Cup captain, was no match for the Wimbledon champion in front of his delighted home town crowd at the St Jakobshalle.
Federer, the second seed, was 5-0 up before Rosset got on the scoreboard as the two-time Basel finalist blasted his way to the first set.
Veteran Rosset, 32, put up more of a fight in the second set but Federer, 10 years his junior, oozed class and confidence, ending the match with a winner to break his opponent for a second time in the set.
Federer will next take on Italy’s Filippo Volandri or Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.
Fifth-seed Jiri Novak overcame an early scare to move into the second round with a 3-6 6-3 6-0 win over qualifier Arvind Parmar.
First round results:
Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt Marc Rosset (Switzerland) 6-1 6-3; Arnaud Clement (France) bt Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) 6-4 7-6 (7-4); Michael Llodra (France) bt Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4; Tomas Zib (Czech Republic) bt Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 7-6 (7-0) 7-6 (7-5); Tomas Behrend (Germany) bt James Blake (U.S.) 1-6 6-3 6-4; Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) bt Arvind Parmar (Britain) 3-6 6-3 6-0.
Linz WTA results
LINZ (Austria): Results from the first round of the $585,000 WTA Tour Generali Ladies tournament on Tuesday:
Paola Suarez (Argentina) bt Carolina Sprem (Croatia) 6-3 6-4; Elena Bovina (Russia) bt Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 7-6 (9-7) 6-4; Magui Serna (Spain) bt Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) 6-4 7-5
blic) bt Arvind Parmar (Britain) 3-6 6-3 6-0.
St Petersburg Open
ST PETERSBURG: First round results from the $975,000 ATP St Petersburg Open tennis tournament on Tuesday
Sebastien Grosjean (France) bt Stefan Koubek (Austria) 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 7-5; Vincent Spadea (U.S.) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 4-6 6-1 6-2; Anthony Dupuis (France) bt David Sanchez (Spain) 6-2 6-3; Alex Corretja (Spain) bt Jan Vacek (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-1; Lars Burgsmuller (Germany) bt Andy Ram (Israel) 2-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-1.—Agencies