Roger Federer, playing for the first time since winning Wimbledon, returned to the court with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over Canada’s Frederic Niemeyer at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday.
Federer, who took time off while his wife gave birth to twin girls, took a set to find his range and then the top-ranked Swiss star put away the low-ranked Niemeyer.
The 33-year-old Niemeyer, whose ranking has tumbled to 487th, plans to retire at the end of this season.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“He’s a nice man,” Federer said. “It’s sad when you leave the game, but he seems happy with himself, so I wish him well ... We played each other in a satellite in front of two people. It was snowing outside. And 11 years later we’re playing in front of a packed house here in Montreal.”
Niemeyer had a double-fault in the first set tiebreaker, then lost his serve at 3-3 in the second set and Federer served out the match.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” Niemeyer said. “It’s my last match here and I was able to play the way I’m capable of playing. Too bad it was my last one, but I have no regrets. I just enjoyed the moment.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
Federer said Niemeyer gave him trouble with his serve, which made it difficult to establish a rhythm in his game.
“After five or six weeks of not playing matches, just practice matches, you’re a little slow on the returns,” Federer said.
Earlier, Andy Murray — also playing his first match since Wimbledon — beat France’s Jeremy Chardy 6-4, 6-2.
Murray lost to Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon semi-finals five weeks ago, but he had enough form to get past Chardy. Murray converted three of eight break chances, while Chardy missed all 10 of his.
Murray is off to the best start of his career with a 46-7 record, winning four tournaments this year.
With Rafael Nadal struggling on sore knees, Murray can overtake the Spaniard for the No. 2 ranking if he wins the tournament. Murray could also attain No. 2 if he reaches the final and Nadal loses in the semi-finals.
“I’ve been asked about it a lot, so it’s impossible not to think about it. But when I’m playing my match, it’s the furthest thing from my mind,” Murray said of the rankings.
Nadal played doubles on Tuesday. He was scheduled to play singles yesterday, the first since he lost in the fourth round of the French Open and withdrew from Wimbledon because of tendinitis in his knees.
Following a first-round bye into the second round, Murray will next face the winner between Juan Carlos Ferrero and 13th-seeded Gael Monfils. Ferrero advanced by defeating Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-4 in a match of former No. 1s.
The Spaniard improved to 4-6 in career matches against Hewitt.
Ferrero needed to get through two qualifiers to play in the tournament.
Hewitt said he injured a leg last week and wasn’t able to train for several days. He said it restricted his movement on the court, but he hopes to be back on form before the US Open at the end of the month.
Joining Murray in the third round were fourth-ranked Novak Djokovic, who trailed 3-0 in the first set before rallying for a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over Canadian Peter Polansky, and eighth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko, who overcame Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) in two hours.
Czech seeds Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych were ousted in their first-round matches. Stepanek (16th) fell to lucky loser Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4, and Berdych (17th) lost to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 7-6 (5), 6-7 (9), 6-4 for the first time in five meetings.
Other first-round winners included 10th-seeded Fernando Verdasco, 11thy-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, Tommy Robredo of Spain, Victor Hanescu of Romania, Spaniard David Ferrer, Tommy Haas of Germany, and Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.
■CINCINNATI OPEN
AP, MASON, OHIO
Top-ranked Dinara Safina rallied past unseeded Roberta Vinci of Italy 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the third round of the Western & Southern Financial Group Open on Tuesday.
Safina, who entered in her 17th consecutive week at No. 1, came up with a service break with Vinci serving for the match in the second set at 5-4. She won three straight games to force a third set, then came from 3-1 down in the third to squeeze past Vinci for a third straight time.
Safina, who suffered a cut on her left hand while trying to slice open a coconut last week in Los Angeles, had 48 unforced errors to Vinci’s 28, many while Vinci was winning nine straight games.
Third-seeded Venus Williams, making her Cincinnati debut, won 11 of the last 13 games and rolled past Belarusian qualifier Olga Govortsova 6-2, 6-2 to move into the third round in the day’s closer, which started 90 minutes late because of earlier rain delays.
Sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova had an even more difficult time, surviving two tiebreakers and two rain delays to outlast Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4) and move into the third round.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the 13th seed, had an easier time, advancing with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Ai Sugiyama, while 14th-seeded Flavia Pennetta moved on with a 6-2, 6-3 win over qualifier Ayumi Morita.
Earlier, Belgian qualifier Yanina Wickmayer upset Italy’s Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-4.
The 56th-ranked Wickmayer became the third qualifier to reach the second round with her upset of the 26th-ranked Schiavone. Wickmayer believed playing the qualifier gave her an advantage.
“I think my advantage today was I had a few matches in my legs already,” said the 19-year-old Wickmayer, who plays doubles with Kim Clijsters.
Also, unseeded Alona Bondarenko upset 10th-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-3, and 15th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova fell to unseeded Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-1. Flavia Pennetta defeated qualifier Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-3.
Other winners included Flavia Pennetta of Italy, Agnes Szavay of Hungary, Sorana Cirstea of Romania, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain, Sybille Bammer of Austria, and Russians Alisa Kleybanova and wild-card Maria Kirilenko.
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