THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONACO — Roger Federer was dominant in his first match on clay this year, routing Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-2, 6-1 in the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters on Tuesday.
The Swiss star, seeded second after Novak Djokovic’s withdrawal from the tournament, outplayed Kohlschreiber from the start, breaking his serve to begin both sets and wrapping up the win in only 50 minutes.
"Clearly a good start for me into the clay-court season," Federer said. "I was able to do all the things I was hoping to. I was consistent; consistently dangerous, too. I felt well in the offence, and in the defence I was fine."
Federer, who has lost three times to top-ranked Rafael Nadal in the Monte Carlo final, had Kohlschreiber scampering helplessly around centre court with a mixture of sublime lobs and drop shots.
"I managed to vary the game well and not make too many mistakes," said Federer, whose only title win this year was at the Qatar Open in January.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion broke Kohlschreiber twice in each set, saved the only break point he faced with an ace, and sealed victory with his fifth ace of the match to improve to 6-0 against the German.
Federer, who trained with Kohlschreiber last summer, has only ever lost one set to him — in a tiebreaker at Wimbledon two years ago.
"I think he can play a lot better than he did today," Federer said. "Sometimes there are opponents it works really well against. Others, you realize you have to work the point differently. I know how good Philipp is and how heavy his ball actually is. I was actually quite surprised I was having no problems with his serve."
Federer clinched the opening set when Kohlschreiber sent a forehand long. Against the backdrop of the glittering Mediterranean sea, his play continued to sparkle in the second set.
He hit a lob on the run from the back of the court, then sprinted to the net to retrieve the return and flick a winner that wrong-footed Kohlschreiber in the sixth game.
Nadal starts his clay-court season on Wednesday with a second-round match against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland.
"He’s clearly the overwhelming favourite for this tournament, even though I haven’t seen him play yet," Federer said. "Look, we all know how good Rafa is on this surface. He rarely struggles against guys out of the top 20."
In first-round action, 16th-seeded Gilles Simon of France beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-3, 6-2, Feliciano Lopez of Spain rallied to beat Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina downed Victor Hanescu of Romania 3-6, 7-5, 6-1.