Dubai Open: Federer crushes his old pal for the 16th time

Dubai Roger Federer crushed an old pal for the 16th successive time as he made an encouraging highspeed restart to the ATP World Tour after his Australian Open debacleRoger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in Dubai United Arab Emirates PicAFPThe Grand Slam recordholders lively 63 61 win over Mikhail Youzhny a regular sparring partner in the first round of the Dubai Open helped him begin to rebuild after a dispiriting third round loss in MelbourneThe Swiss legend did this consistently well serving forcefully striking the ball with surprisingly good rhythm in a stiff breeze and shortening the rallies by coming to the net successfully on plenty of occasions Hes beaten me a lot in practice Federer said when asked how he managed to be so ruthless against someone he had been playing since the turn of the century and to whom he had never lostFor some reason he has not done so in a match he added You cant feel sorry You have to make your best effort Youzhny who has twice reached the final here is still a fluent groundstroker but only remained a contender in this match for the first seven games against a Federer intent on not playing too carefully in tricky conditions a mistake he believes he made in AustraliaYouzhny then saved three break points before being pressured into driving too long on the fourth After that Federer consolidated the break with a sharp service game before breaking again to close the first set The second was so quick the match was over inside one hour In the best of three sets on a quick court the score can run away from you A bad five to ten minutes can cost you the match Federer saidSo Im pleased with the way I started Inside out It was a startling contrast to the start of Ernests Gulbis the fifthseeded Latvian who was in the worlds top ten at last years Wimbledon but is now at risk of tumbling rapidly from the top 20 after losing his seventh match in a row and all five matches this year This time it was a 75 62 loss to Denis Istomen of Uzbekistan despite leading 41 in the first set Gulbis has plausible explanationsHe has had a bad shoulder and a persistent virus The conditions were often very difficult an umpires giant sunshade turning inside out in the wind causing it to be dismantled Several paper bags blew distractingly into the sky above the court one descending erratically before landing on Gulbis racket And he had other problems apart from mood form and adverse weatherOne travel bag was lost during his journey causing him to arrive without tennis shoes I bought shoes here one size too small so I was practising in shoes one size too small he said Didnt break my good mood until todays match His dark humour made it easy to be sympathetic I dont know whats going on was his first amusing responseAnd then In practice I have been playing worse than in the match His conclusion It worries me definitely worries me Does it keep me awake in the night No Gulbis exit is possibly good news for Tomas Berdych although the fourthseeded Czech could still have a quarterfinal against another dangerously unpredictable hitter Lukas Rosol once the Wimbledon conqueror of Rafael NadalEarlier Novak Djokovics first appearance ended in a defeat on an outside court as he and his Serbian compatriot Laslo Djere lost in the mens doubles The victors by 62 75 were Daniel Nestor the Belgradeborn Canadian a winner of eight Grand Slam titles and Rohan Bopanna of India one of the holders of this title