Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Four-time champion Roger round winners at the $1.7 million Dubai Tennis Championships.
The second-seeded former world No. 1 Federer got past last week's Marseille runner-up Michael Llodra of France 6-0, 7-6 (8-6), while a third-seeded Murray also topped a left-hander on Day 2, German qualifier Michael Berrer, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Dubai Tennis Stadium.
Federer won the first set in a mere 17 minutes, popped seven aces and was not broken by Llodra, while Murray, who labored on Day 2, smacked seven aces and tallied one more break (6-5) than a game Berrer to setup a meeting with Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli.
"It's always great to start off a tournament winning the first set 6-0," Federer said. "After that, I really had to sort of make sure I controlled Michael as much as I could because I know he's a dangerous player. I think I was solid. I could have served maybe a touch better. But still, I was never really in a whole lot of problems. Tiebreakers, as we saw, can go quickly either way, especially on a quick court like tonight. I hope I back it up day for day now."
The Swiss icon Federer was last year's runner-up here to current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, this week's top seed. Federer and the reigning three-time Dubai champion Djokovic have combined to win seven of the last nine titles here.
The eighth-seeded del Potro, meanwhile, stayed hot by handling Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in 1 hour, 33 minutes. The former U.S. Open champion del Potro beat Llodra in this past Sunday's finale in Marseille.
The 6-foot-6 Del Potro will meet Kazakhstani qualifier Andrey Golubev on Wednesday.
Federer, the Scottish Murray and the Argentine del Potro were just three of the six top-10 players in the world on Tuesday's schedule.
In other action involving seeds, No. 4 Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat fellow former Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, No. 5 former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic blitzed German Benjamin Becker 6-2, 6-2, and No. 7 Serb Janko Tipsarevic whipped Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-2, 6-2.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny was leading fellow former top-10 star Richard Gasquet 6-3 after one set when the Frenchman retired due to an illness, while the aforementioned Chiudinelli edged out former world No. 3 Russian Nikolay Davydenko 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and Italian Flavio Cipolla dismissed former world No. 4 Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-2, 7-5.
Additional first-round wins came for Spaniard Feliciano Lopez and Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who is rewarded with a Wednesday bout against the reigning Aussie Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion Djokovic. Lopez should have his hands full with the 16-time Grand Slam titlist Federer on Day 3.
Also on Wednesday, Tsonga will encounter Czech Lukas Rosol, Berdych will play Slovakian qualifier Lukas Lacko, sixth-seeded American Mardy Fish will be opposed by Youzhny, and Tipsarevic will lock horns with Cipolla.
The 2012 Dubai champ will collect $409,170.
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