Federer, hot Gasquet advance in Rotterdam
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reigning champion Roger Federer opened with a win, while fresh off his title in France last week, French star Richard Gasquet was also a first-round victor Wednesday at the $1.7 million ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
The top-seeded former world No. 1 Federer leveled Slovenian Grega Zemlja 6-3, 6-1 in 58 minutes to reach the second round.
The reigning Wimbledon champion and 17-time major titlist beat Juan Martin del Potro in last year's marquee finale here and also titled in Rotterdam back in 2005.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Federer's next opponent will be Dutch wild card Thiemo de Bakker.
The fourth-seeded world No. 10 Gasquet withstood 11 aces in defeating Serbian Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 on the indoor hardcourts at Ahoy Rotterdam. Troicki is now a dismal 3-44 lifetime against top-10 competition.
The in-form Gasquet ran the table in Montpellier last week for his second title of 2013 -- with the other coming in Doha last month -- and improved his ATP-best match record to 15-1 this season.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gasquet's second-round opponent will be dangerous Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
In some second-round action on Day 3, fifth-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon subdued Italian qualifier Matteo Viola 6-3, 6-1, France's Julien Benneteau dispatched Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-1, 6-3, and promising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov straight-setted former world No. 3 Nikolay Davydenko 7-5, 6-3.
And in other first-round play, German qualifier Matthias Bachinger upended sixth-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4 and the former Australian Open runner-up Baghdatis got past Benoit Paire, 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 4-0, as the Frenchman retired while trailing in the third set due to an illness. Paire was last week's Montpellier runner-up to his fellow countryman Gasquet.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In addition to Federer, a second-seeded del Potro will play his second-round match against Latvian Ernests Gulbis on Thursday.