Roger Federer ranged from imperious to effective as he beat Michael Llodra 6-0, 7-6 (8/6) at the Dubai Open on Tuesday, but Britain’s Andy Murray was made to fight for his spot in the second round.
Federer raced through the first set in only 17 minutes, breaking his opponent three times in a ruthlessly dominant display of court craft.
The Swiss No. 2 seed did not drop a game until the eighth of the match, but the Frenchman dug in to force a tiebreak in the second set.
Photo: AFP
The breaker was closely fought, but Federer eventually won it 8-6 with a backhand on the run. He will now play Spaniard Felicano Lopez, who beat France’s Nicolas Mahut 6-4 6-4.
“It’s always great to start off a tournament winning the first set 6-0. I don’t know when that’s the last time it’s happened to me,” the 16-time Grand Slam champion said.
World No. 4 Murray was pushed hard by German qualifier Michael Berrer before winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to book his place in the second round.
The third seed, who was playing his first match since losing to Novak Djokovic in the semi-final of the Australian Open in January, led by a set and 3-2 before Berrer fought back to clinch the second.
Murray looked sluggish at the start of the decider, but broke to lead 5-4 and then comfortably closed out the match.
“At the start of the match I didn’t feel great,” Murray said on the ATP Web site. “It was one of those strange sets. It was quite a frustrating match because I was up a break twice in the second set and each time I think gave it straight back.”
“I could have made it a little bit easier for myself if I played a bit better,” he added.
Murray will face Marco Chiudinelli in the second round after the Swiss overcame Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro maintained his hot streak by stifling Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
The Argentine captured the Marseille Open on Sunday and has now won nine of his past 10 matches after also reaching the Rotterdam final earlier this month.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fought past Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (7/2), 6-4, while Czech Tomas Berdych beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-2.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier