MADRID - World number one
Roger Federer made an authoritative start to his bid to win his 10th title of
the year when he saw off the combative Chilean Nicolas Massu 6-3 6-2 in the
second round of the Madrid Masters on Tuesday.
There was a narrow escape for fourth seed David Nalbandian who had to fight
his way back from 5-2 down in the third set to beat off a determined challenge
from French qualifier Julien Benneteau, winning through 6-7 6-2 7-5.
The Argentine now faces an intriguing third round clash against former
British number one Tim Henman who upset Spanish 14th seed David Ferrer 6-1 4-6
6-1.
Former winner Marat Safin, who beat Nalbandian in the 2004 final, also had to
overcome stiff resistance from Jose Acasuso before claiming a 7-6 6-7 6-3 win
over the Argentine.
The Russian will now play Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the second round.
Massu, who reached the Madrid final in 2003 but is unseeded this year, played
some fine aggressive tennis in the opening set against Federer, but the top seed
made so few errors that the Chilean struggled to find any chinks in his armour.
Federer, playing in Madrid for the first time in three years, found his
rhythm almost immediately on the rapid hard court surface and soon settled into
playing his trademark compact tennis.
The Swiss broke once in the first set and twice in the second to extend his
winning streak to 15 matches.
"I think I played the big points better than he did which made it easier for
me," said Federer. "If I hadn't done that it could have turned out much harder,
but it was a perfect result."
He will play the winner of the match between Spain's former number one Juan
Carlos Ferrero and Robin Soderling of Sweden in the third round.
POWERFUL SERVE
Sixth seed Andy Roddick took full advantage of his powerful serve to see off
Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-4 7-6.
Spain's Tommy Robredo, who captured the biggest title of his career when he
won the Hamburg Masters in May, also progressed after a gritty 7-6 7-6 win over
Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela.
The 24-year-old became the first Spaniard to win in Madrid after first-round
defeats for five of his compatriots including Carlos Moya, Fernando Verdasco and
Feliciano Lopez.
The 32-year-old Henman, who lost to Federer in the final of the Japan Open in
Tokyo earlier this month, ripped through the first set and although he lost the
second he rose to the challenge in the third with some aggressive play at the
net.
"I think I wasn't as consistent as yesterday but in the first and third sets
I was probably even better," said the Briton. "It was fantastic, I couldn't be
happier."
Torrential overnight rain delayed the start of the morning matches after the
roof in the Madrid Arena sprang a leak and organisers had to wait for workmen to
lay out tarpaulin sheets to prevent more water getting on to the courts.
Frenchman Gael Monfils had to retire after straining an ankle when he leapt
into the air while a set up in his first round match against Slovak Dominik
Hrbaty and brought a premature end to his season.
