Federer begins defending campaign with straight sets win in Paris

World No. 1 Roger Federer opened his Roland Garros title defence Monday with a 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Australian Peter Luczak in very warm, sunny conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The Swiss, who defeated Swede Robin Soderling to win the Roland Garros crown for the first time last year, was largely untroubled in advancing to the second round. The No. 71-ranked Luczak provided strong resistance in the opening eight games, before Federer broke through the 30 year old’s defences in the 10th game to seal a one-set lead.

From there, it was largely one-way traffic for Federer. The top seed broke serve twice in the fourth and sixth games of the second set to secure a commanding two-set lead and earned his breakthrough in the third set in the fifth game with a driven forehand to force the error from Luczak. Federer then broke serve once more in the seventh game before serving out victory in one hour and 48 minutes.

“I finally got a chance [to break serve] at 5-4 [in the first set], so it was a good first set for me, anyway, without any hiccups on my own serve,” said Federer. “After that things were a bit easier. He had to push it a bit more. I could relax a bit more, and then the scoreline changed and towards the end I played some great drop shots. So it was like a perfect match to get off the French Open campaign, really.”

For the first time in nine years, Federer came into Roland Garros without having won a clay-court title in the lead-up; his best effort was a runner-up finish to Rafael Nadal at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open two weeks ago. The 16-time Grand Slam championship winner, who is bidding to achieve the calendar Grand Slam this year after victory at the Australian Open (d. Murray), next will face Colombian Alejandro Falla.

There were audible gasps after in-form Frenchman Richard Gasquet was selected to face World No. 4 Andy Murray at last week’s Roland Garros draw ceremony, and the first-round match lived up to its blockbuster billing as Britain’s top title hope recovered from two sets and a break down to prevail 4-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

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Former World No. 7 Gasquet had entered his home country Slam in dangerous form, following title wins at the Bordeaux Challenger and the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur the past two weeks, and seemed poised to do some damage in his first Roland Garros appearance since 2007.

After securing the first two sets against Murray, Gasquet broke for a 3-2 lead in the third set only to drop serve for the first time in the next game. It proved the opening that the Scot needed – he went on to break the beleaguered Frenchman six more times as he completed the comeback in just over four hours.

"[I was] really, really tired, so it's hard in Grand Slam especially against Murray," said Gasquet. "He's always fighting, fighting, putting all the balls in the court. He's running well. I was close, but I didn't... It was really, really hard for me to finish the match. He played well, and in a Grand Slam you have to be 100 percent to win, especially against Andy."


Monday, 24 May 2010

Singles - First Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d P Luczak (AUS) 64 61 62
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d E Korolev (KAZ) 61 36 61 63
[4] A Murray (GBR) d R Gasquet (FRA) 46 67(5) 64 62 61
[12] F Gonzalez (CHI) d T Alves (BRA) 62 46 64 64
[13] G Monfils (FRA) d *[LL] D Kindlmann (GER) 63 75 67(5) 62
[14] I Ljubicic (CRO) d Y Lu (TPE) 76(5) 75 63
[15] T Berdych (CZE) d J Aguilar (CHI) 76(7) 63 61
[17] J Isner (USA) d A Golubev (KAZ) 64 63 62
[19] N Almagro (ESP) d R Haase (NED) 64 36 46 76(3) 64
[20] S Wawrinka (SUI) d J Hajek (CZE) 61 63 63
V Troicki (SRB) d [21] T Robredo (ESP) 64 64 63
[24] T Bellucci (BRA) d M Llodra (FRA) 64 62 62
[25] M Baghdatis (CYP) d J Witten (USA) 63 64 63
J Reister (GER) d [27] Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 61 76(5) 62
[31] V Hanescu (ROU) d O Hernandez (ESP) 61 16 64 63
O Rochus (BEL) d B Paire (FRA) 36 76(4) 64 75
M Granollers (ESP) d P Mathieu (FRA) 36 63 30 ret. (digestive problems)
T Dent (USA) d N Lapentti (ECU) 63 64 76(3)
D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) d D Tursunov (RUS) 61 61 61
C Ball (AUS) d P Petzschner (GER) 36 67(4) 62 75 97
Y Schukin (KAZ) d R Ram (USA) 36 64 62 64
K Nishikori (JPN) d S Giraldo (COL) 26 46 76(3) 62 64
O Dolgopolov Jr (UKR) d A Clement (FRA) 36 76(5) 36 63 63
P Andujar (ESP) d S Bolelli (ITA) 76(2) 64 62
A Beck (GER) d P Lorenzi (ITA) 46 63 62 62
L Mayer (ARG) d S Stakhovsky (UKR) 76(4) 63 62
M Fish (USA) d M Berrer (GER) 57 64 36 61 63
S Darcis (BEL) d K Vliegen (BEL) 61 64 64
L Lacko (SVK) d M Yani (USA) - 46 76(5) 76(4) 67(5) 12-10

*replaced F Mayer (GER) - illness