May 6, 2008, 14:39 GMT
Rome - Roger Federer inflicted clay-court revenge on one-time spoiler Guillermo Canas with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of the Argentine who beat him back-to-back a year ago, making a winning start on Tuesday at the Rome Masters.
Federer, the top seed, stood a surprising 2-3 against the 30th-ranked South American in their previous meetings, all on harcourt.
But their debut on clay was a celebration for the Swiss, who belted out a victory in 83 minutes with breaks of the Argentine's last two service games to complete a clean performance in his opening outing at the Foro Italico.
'It was our first meeting on clay,' said Federer, a losing Rome finalist in 2003 and 2006.
'I played well this spring in Estoril and Monte Carlo. It's always tough against him, I'm happy to win my first round in Rome.
'I'm continuing to play well here, I'm on a good run. I had a good final in Monte Carlos against (Rafael) Nadal. Rafa remains the guy to beat, he's played extraordinarily over the past few seasons.
'But I hope I can get into position against and close the deal this year.'
Andy Roddick extended his dominance over one-time high-school housemate Mardy Fish, administering a 6-1, 6-4 thrashing as the pair met for the first time on clay.
Roddick, seeded sixth, had won seven of the pair's previous eight on hardcourt, all but one played on home courts.
'I feel pretty good,' said the winner. 'Mardy is an attacking playing player, and if he was going to attack, I wanted to make him do it from deep in the court.
'I played pretty solid.'
The normally big-hitting Roddick was limited to just four aces and saved the only break point that he faced.
The former number one, a Rome semi-finalist in his tournament debut in 2002, will hope to continue his early clay-season progress in the third-round as he play his first 2008 event on the surface.
Despite his distaste for the unpredictability of the dirt, Roddick has only lost once in the opening round in Rome, four years ago to Canas.
'I enjoy the challenge of clay, it's obviously probably my toughest surface,' said Roddick. 'That makes the wins that I do get that much more satisfying.
'What do I dislike? Obviously it's slower. It takes away a lot of my weapons which isn't fun.'
Spanish 14th seed Tommy Robredo began with a win into the second round, dismissing Argentine Juan Chela 6-4, 6-1, while Jose Acasuso got one back for the South Americans with his 6-4, 6-2 defat of Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2.
Former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero eliminated German Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4, a struggle which lasted two and a half hours.
Subscribe to RSS headline updates from: Powered by FeedBurner
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!
Advertising
There are currently no comments for this article. Be the first to comment!