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Federer, Djokovic advance to 2nd round in Dubai

Roger Federer won his first match since losing in the Australian Open semifinals by comfortably beating Indian wild card Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Championships on Tuesday.

Novak Djokovic, who beat Federer in Melbourne and went on to his second Grand Slam title, won his Dubai opener against Michael Llodra of France by the same score.

Federer, a four-time winner of Dubai, had his share of unforced errors but was never really in trouble in his first match with Devvarman. He saved the only two break points he faced and often brought a packed centre court crowd at the Aviation Club to its feet with some stunning shots.

‘I’ve had some tough ones over the years here actually in the early round. That’s why I don’t judge my first rounds too harshly or whatever,’ Federer said. ‘It’s about coming through and giving yourself a second chance the next day and then kind of move on in the draw. Then if you’re in the quarters or the semis, this is when I expect myself to play much better.’

Federer praised the game of Devvarman, who is ranked 79^th and is the only Indian singles player in the top 100.

‘First rounds, honestly, I always expect tough matches,’ he said. ‘Not that I expect easier ones in the quarters, because usually the opponents are stronger. But, look, I’ve never played him before, so the last thing I was going to do was underestimate him.’

Djokovic, the two-time defending champion in Dubai but seeded second to Federer, also had an easy time with Llodra, losing his serve only once.

‘I have to say I’m happy with the performance today,’ said Djokovic, who was beaten by Llodra in November at the Paris Masters. ‘I think he didn’t serve as well and as fast as our last match in Paris. But still, I was managing to return a lot of balls back and making him play an extra shot.’

Djokovic also said he was working on his serve-and-volley and played doubles on Tuesday with his brother Marko, losing to Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes 6-4, 6-1. Djokovic was expected to play doubles in upcoming Masters tournaments, including with Andy Murray at Miami.

‘It’s not easy after playing 23 years from the baseline. You want to step into the court and go to the net a little bit,’ Djokovic said. ‘But I’m working on that variety in my game, using the serves well, and I did well today.’

Also, seventh-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus retired against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan because of the flu while trailing 4-0 in the first set.

Baghdatis called for the trainer after he went down 3-0 to the 44^th-ranked Golubev. He played one more game before retiring, becoming the second seeded player in two days to withdraw.

On Monday, fifth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia withdrew in the second set with a leg injury against Ukrainian qualifier Sergei Bubka.

The 20^th-ranked Baghdatis said he has been in bed with a high temperature for the past five or six days and had been on the practice court for only about 10 minutes. He said he felt better heading into the match but then ‘had no energy’ once he started playing.

‘I think I came here to give it a try. Why not come here and try, you know?’ Baghdatis said. ‘I just couldn’t.’

Nikolay Davydenko of Russia also advanced, beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-0, while Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany upset Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-1, 7-6 (2). Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan retired due to an undisclosed illness after falling behind 5-0 in the first set against Feliciano Lopez of Spain.