Defending champion and top-ranked Roger Federer cruised into the third round of the Hamburg Masters and avenged his Olympic defeat by beating Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday.
In his first tournament following a three-week break to rest inflammation in both feet, Federer will next meet Tommy Robredo, who beat three-time French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten 6-3, 6-0.
Federer needed only 53 minutes to overcome the 46th-ranked Berdych, hitting 25 winners against six for the Czech, who beat Federer at last year’s Olympics in Athens.
”He ruined my Olympic dream last summer,” said Federer, who lost to Berdych in the round of 32 in Athens, their only previous meeting.
”It was a good match, I was happy with the way I played. From the start, I felt good,” said Federer, who also won in Hamburg in 2002.
The winner of five titles this year, Federer is 37-2 overall in 2005.
While Federer made short work of his opponent on the covered centre court, Britain’s Tim Henman had to battle the elements as well as his countryman opponent, Greg Rusedski.
With rain and wind blasts whipping the outside court, the fifth-seeded Henman won 7-6 (3), 6-4. At one point during a rally, the wind upended a courtside umbrella there to shelter the players.
There were several delays because of intermittent showers.
”It was very, very difficult,” Henman said. ”I don’t know if I’ve played in more difficult conditions.”
Henman complained about the state of the court, saying it should be covered during the rain.
”On a sodden court like that, it’s difficult to play the level of tennis you’d expect from such a field. That court is not good enough,” he said.
Once the top player on clay, Kuerten is now 2-4 on the surface since returning in April, seven months after hip surgery.
Kuerten broke Robredo’s serve for a 3-2 lead in the first set — but didn’t win another game in the match.
Robredo, seeded 14th, needed just 62 minutes to beat the 2000 Hamburg champion, who had 32 unforced errors to Robredo’s 14.
Also, Christophe Rochus upset 13th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-2.
In other matches, Juan Ignacio Chela beat Robin Soderling 6-1, 6-4 and Nikolay Davydenko, seeded 15th, ousted Mariano Puerta 7-5, 6-3.
The €2 082 500 tournament is a major warm-up for the French Open, the second grand slam of the year that starts on May 23. — Sapa-AP