Tennis
Federer cruises, Nadal struggles to win in Hamburg
By DPA
May 14, 2008, 18:35 GMT

Hamburg - The world's leading duo of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal rebounded from recent disappointment in Rome with wins - in contrasting style - in the second round of the Hamburg Masters on Wednesday.

Switzerland's Federer took just 57 minutes to demolish Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, 6-1, 6-3.

Spaniard Nadal needed to overcome more opposition before outlasting Potito Starace of Italy, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), in 2:07 hours after saving a set point in the tiebreak.

Like all eight top seeds Federer and Nadal had first-round byes in Hamburg.

Federer was ambushed by Czech Radek Stepanek in the Rome quarter- finals last week. Nadal fared even worse, crashing in the second round there against compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero, partly handicapped by a foot blister as he lost for only the second time in 105 matches on clay since 2005.

The other loss came against Federer in the 2007 Hamburg decider as the Swiss won his fourth title.

Federer returned to the centre court on Wednesday, dropped serve twice early in the second set but responded with four unanswered games to clinch victory on his first match point. Federer had 11 unforced errors to Nieminen's 22.

'It was a good performance,' said Federer after stretching his record against Nieminen to 9-0 without dropping a set.

'I have had so much success here. I knew immediately that this would work for me (again).'

Nadal had some early hiccups as he trailed the 47th-ranked Starace, but four games in a row from 3-1 down to 5-3 eventually gave him the first set.

Starace continued to torment Nadal in the second set and even had a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak. But he then double-faulted and hit an easy forehand into the net to give Nadal match point which the Spaniard accepted with a forehand winner. Nadal had 20 unforced errors while Starace piled up 42.

Nadal needs a good performance in Hamburg as according to new ATP calculations from Wednesday is under threat from Serb Novak Djokovic. The Rome champion was due to open against Juan Ignacio Chela later Wednesday.

The beaten Rome finalist Stanislas Wawrinka crashed out, the Swiss losing against 43rd-ranked local player Nicolas Kiefer, 7-5, 7-5. Kiefer saved two set points in 10th game of the second set en route to victory in 2 hours 22 minutes.

Earlier, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia accounted for seventh seed James Blake of the US, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. Former world number one Marat Safin of Russia defeated ninth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych, 7-5, 6-4.

The 13th seed Tommy Robredo of Spain lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) against Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, and 14th-seeded Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France was beaten by Sweden's Robin Soderling, 6-2, 7-5.

But number 11 Carlos Moya defeated Belgian Oliver Rochus, 7-5, 6- 3, 12 seed Juan Monaco of Argentina ousted Simone Bolelli of Italy, 6-2, 6-1, and British number 15 Andy Murray prevailed 6-3, 6-3 over France's Gilles Simon.