Federer powers into Open second round

Defending champion Roger Federer wasted little time and energy in safely progressing
to the second round of the Australian Open on Monday.
Second-seeded Federer looked in devastating touch as he thrashed Slovakia's Lukas
Lacko 6-1 6-1 6-3 in less than 90 minutes at Rod Laver Arena.
American eighth seed Andy Roddick also scored a routine first-round win, outclassing
Jan Hajek 6-1 6-2 6-2.
Federer, though, was particularly brutal.
Lacko had "bagelled" flu-suffering world No.1 Rafael Nadal 6-0 during a three-set
loss to the Spaniard earlier this month in Doha.
Federer had no such troubles, breaking Lacko's serve seven times to comfortably set
up a second-round clash with either Sydney International winner Gilles Simon of
France or Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu.
Seeking an open-era record fifth crown at Melbourne Park, Federer is now ominously
riding an 11-match winning streak after finishing 2010 with victory over Nadal in
the World Tour Finals in London and opening this season with a 67th career title in
Doha.
Earlier, French 12th seed Gael Monfils and American 16th seed Mardy Fish each staged
spirited comebacks to avoid first-round exits.
Monfils battled back a service break down in the third set to defeat fellow former
world junior champion Thiemo de Bakker 6-7 (2-7) 2-6 7-5 6-2 6-1, while Fish scraped
past Romanian Victor Hanescu 2-6 4-6 6-3 7-5 6-3.
Monfils had complained of a lower-back injury after losing the Kooyong Classic final
to Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday, but he still managed to last almost four hours to see
off his Dutch opponent.
De Bakker served for the match at 5-3 in the third set, but was made to pay after
being unable to close out the contest.
Coached by Hewitt's former mentor Roger Rasheed, Monfils next faces Frederico Gil of
Portugal for a place in the last 32 of the season-opening grand slam.
American 18th seed Sam Querrey was the first seeded casualty in the men's draw, the
Queen's Club champion falling 5-7 6-2 3-6 6-1 8-6 to Pole Lucasz Kubot.
Former semi-finalist Nikolay Davydenko also crashed out, Russia's 23rd seed losing
6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to German Florian Mayer.



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