Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) – Second seed and three-time champion Roger Federer, reigning titlist Novak Djokovic and former top-ranked star Andy Roddick were among Wednesday’s second-round winners at the first Grand Slam event of the year, the Australian Open.
Federer throttled helpless Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 in a brisk 86 minutes and will face another Russian, Marat Safin, in a battle of former Aussie Open champs in the next round. The 26th-seeded Safin, the 2005 Melbourne titlist, topped Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
“It’s going to be a nice match for sure,” said Federer. “We have a history. We go way back. Him, of course, being a former No. 1, same for me, former Grand Slam champion, it’s an intriguing matchup. Back when he was really at his very best — we had different personalities growing up. I sort of chilled out and he kept on going.”
The former top-ranked Federer is the reigning U.S. Open champ and owns 13 major titles in his career. He needs one more Grand Slam title to equal the record set by American legend Pete Sampras.
Safin hasn’t fared well in his career against Federer, as evidenced by a 2-9 record. The super Swiss has won the last three encounters and this will mark the third time the two will meet in Melbourne. Safin won in an amazing semifinal here in 2005, while Federer beat the Russian in the 2004 finale.
“Unfortunately I didn’t win a lot of matches against him, but I’m looking forward,” said Safin. “It’s another chance. I have nothing to lose. I’m going to go for it. Whatever comes, comes.”
In addition to his ’05 win, Safin also reached finals here in 2002 and 2004.
The third-seeded Serbian Djokovic continued his run toward a possible second straight Australian Open title by disposing of Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 7-5, 6-1, 6-3. Djokovic popped seven aces, took advantage of 32 unforced errors by Chardy and converted on all six of his break-point chances.
Djokovic defeated France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in last year’s Aussie Open final.
A seventh-seeded Roddick, meanwhile, came from behind to beat talented Belgian Xavier Malisse for the eighth time in eight career tries, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, while eighth-seeded Argentine slugger Juan Martin del Potro pasted German Florian Mayer 6-1, 7-5, 6-2. The surging del Potro is fresh off his title last week in Auckland.
Up next for Roddick will be 36-year-old Frenchman Fabrice Santoro, while del Potro will be opposed by Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller in the round of 32.
In a match that lasted nearly four hours, 10th-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina wasted a lead and lost to Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu, ranked 61st in the world, 6-4, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. The former Wimbledon runner-up Nalbandian stayed alive with several great shots, but looked out of shape and finally succumbed after committing 61 unforced errors.
Nalbandian was fresh off his title in Sydney last week.
In some other results at Melbourne Park, 11th seed David Ferrer of Spain downed Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-2, 6-1, 15th seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Aussie Brydan Klein 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, and 19th seed Marin Cilic of Croatia bested Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. A mild upset came when 2006 Aussie Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus took out 16th-seeded Swede Robin Soderling 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3.
Another mild upset occurred when the veteran Santoro erased 32nd-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber 5-7, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Other second-round winners on Day 3 were No. 20 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 21st seed Tommy Robredo of Spain and 23rd-seeded American Mardy Fish, who downed Italian Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. Fish will encounter Baghdatis here on Friday.
In a match that took almost 3 1/2 hours to complete, American Amer Delic ousted 28th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 1-6, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3), 9-7. Delic launched 33 aces to earn a third-round match with Djokovic.
“Nobody is easy in this tournament,” said Djokovic. “I don’t want underestimate anybody. Delic deserves to be in the third round. If he came there, of course, he has a lot of qualities. He’s a big server. We played in Wimbledon in 2007 and we had a really close match, so I expect the same in this third round.”
Wednesday’s nightcap saw the aforementioned Muller overcome 16-year-old Aussie hopeful Bernard Tomic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
The second round will conclude here on Thursday, including matches for top- ranked Rafael Nadal, fourth-seeded Brit Andy Murray and the 2008 Aussie Open runner-up Tsonga. The reigning Wimbledon and French Open champion Nadal will meet Croat Roko Karanusic, while the red-hot Murray will face Spaniard Marcel Granollers and a fifth-seeded Tsonga will take on former top-10 Croat Ivan Ljubicic. Murray titled in Doha earlier this month and was last year’s U.S. Open runner-up to Federer.
Other top-10 action will pit sixth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon versus Aussie favorite Chris Guccione and ninth-seeded American James Blake versus France’s Sebastien De Chaunac.
A pair of former Aussie Open finalists will also take to the courts at Melbourne Park, as 13th-seeded Chilean Fernando Gonzalez will tangle with gritty Argentine Guillermo Canas, while pesky Frenchman Arnaud Clement will lock horns with 14th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. Gonzalez, who snuck past Aussie hero Lleyton Hewitt here on Tuesday, was the 2007 Aussie Open runner-up to Federer, while Clement gave way to American legend Andre Agassi in the 2001 finale.
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