Federer off to flier

Updated 21.40 Mon Jun 23 2008
Keywords: hrbaty, centre court, strawberries and cream, ivanovic, sw19, murray, Wimbledon, First Day, Title, defence, Federer

Normal service was resumed after Roger Federer thrashed Dominik Hrbaty on centre court.

The defending champion dismissed his hapless opponent 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour and 19 minutes.

Federer has endured a poor season by his own incredibly high standards, winning just two low-key titles.

After a poor season by his standards, the world number one was in fine form, reeling off the first 11 points of the match to send out a clear message to his doubters.

He broke Hrbaty's serve in the second game although the Slovak, who recently recovered from elbow surgery, produced the biggest cheer of the set when he pulled off a miraculous winner in the sixth game with a back-handed squash-type shot following a Federer lob.

Federer began to step through the gears in the second set against an opponent who has a protected ranking of 70 because of his recent injury lay-off and who had beaten the champion in both their previous meetings.

There appeared to be no chance of that this time as double faults by the Slovak allowed Federer to break serve in the first and third games.

Federer was honing his timing on his favourite surface, his sliced backhands keeping the ball low and causing Hrbaty problems.

Two vintage forehand winners in the eighth game then helped Federer to take the set 6-2 and control of the match at two sets to love.

Federer continued his dominance in the third set, breaking Hrbaty's serve in the third game and displaying his full repertoire of aggressive stroke making.

Later, third seed Novak Djokovic moved safely through after beating German journeyman Michael Berrer 7-5 2-6 6-3 6-0.

The Serb edged a tight first set, breaking Berrer's serve at 6-5 only to lose five games in a row in the second set.

Australian Open winner Djokovic, seeded to play five-times champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals this year, quickly regained control with some classy tennis.

After taking the third set with a single break of serve he swept through the fourth in style.

Meanwhile, former finalist David Nalbandian became the highest men's seed to perish at Wimbledon, beaten 6-4 6-2 6-4 by Canada's Frank Dancevic.

The seventh-seeded Argentine, runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt in 2002, looked completely out of sorts.

The defeat condemned the Argentine to his earliest exit from the All England Club.

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