Federer starts Aussie defense with impressive win
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Sick and tired of talk about his stomach bug, Roger Federer wanted to show he was in Grand Slam form.
He left nobody in doubt.
The man who has had the No. 1 ranking just about glued to him for almost four years began his bid for a third straight Australian Open title Tuesday by doing something he had never done at Melbourne Park.
He opened the season's first major without dropping a game in the first set at Rod Laver Arena, beating Argentina's Diego Hartfield 6-0, 6-3, 6-0. In eight previous trips to Melbourne, he had never swept the opening set.
Federer has not played a competitive match in two months. He withdrew from the Kooyong exhibition last week after being told by doctors he had food poisoning, causing speculation about his fitness.
"I could have maybe played on Saturday, but I didn't want all the fuss -- the media, analyzing my game, thinking they know best and all that," Federer said. "I took an extra day. It's tough, but I played a couple of sets out here the last few days and it's paid off."
Unable to get his usual fine-tuning done at Kooyong, Federer had to settle for doing it in real time. He tested his entire arsenal, mixing his powerful backhands and forehands with some rushes to the net, and alternating serves wide and down the line on the new blue surface.
"Everything was working perfectly," said Federer, who is 26-1 in the last four Australian Opens and has figured in the last 10 Grand Slam finals. "I never expect a result this extreme obviously, but I was playing well in practice, moving well, serving well, and conditions were perfect."
Wimbledon champion Venus Williams played her first match in three years at the Australian Open. She downed China's Yan Zi 6-2, 7-5 but hit 29 unforced errors and only 19 winners.
"Errors happen," Williams said. "That's tennis."
Serena Williams, unseeded and ranked No. 81 when she beat top-seeded Maria Sharapova in last year's final, plays Wednesday in the second round against China's Yuan Meng.
No. 5 Sharapova has the toughest second-round match of the highly ranked players, facing 2000 Australian champion Lindsay Davenport in the night match on center court Wednesday.