Federer Storms Past Hapless Hartfield

Roger Federer began the defence of his Australian Open title with an emphatic straight sets victory over Argentina's Diego Hartfield in a day that also saw three people arrested for unruly behaviour.

Police confirmed that three fans were evicted and interviewed for assaulting police, failing to obey lawful direction and indecent language. The trouble erupted, according to eyewitnesses, when police stepped in to deal with a group of around 40 fans, who had been cheering the Greek and singing loudly between points in the match on Margaret Court Arena.

"It was upsetting, I've never seen anything like it in my life at a tennis match," said Stephen Butterick, a BBC Radio producer.

"The Chileans outnumbered them by about 8-1 but the Greek guys were in one corner of the court, chanting, making loads of noise," he added. "We were watching Gonzalez, and suddenly, I don't know why, a policeman appeared. He tried to get someone and that stage there were two policemen. The other lads got up and started pushing and shoving and he (the policeman) sprayed some kind of mace spray. That set them off again."

Meanwhile Federer showed no signs of the stomach bug that saw him withdraw from last week's Kooyong Open as he breezed past the 26-year-old underdog at the cost of just three games in the second set in just under 1hr 14min. The world No1 hit 38 winners and 11 aces in a one-sided contest to set up a second round clash with Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

Lleyton Hewitt cast aside memories of his poor run-up to the tournament, which had included an early exit in Sydney earlier this month, as he dispatched Belgium's Steve Darcis in brutal fashion 6-0, 6-3, 6-0.

Such was Hewitt's dominance that Darcis only held serve twice in the entire match - he also managed to break Hewitt once in the second set - and the Australian refused to ease up on his opponent even when it was clear he was heading for victory.

"In the end I felt like I could do pretty much what I wanted to do out there and play on my terms, which is good," said Hewitt. "Against the better players they're not going to give you as much opportunity to do that. But, with that said, I felt like I went out there and was aggressive and took what I've been working on in practice on to the match court."

Elsewhere, No3 seed Novak Djokovic showed his friend Andy Murray how to win a first-round match as he eased past Germany's Benjamin Becker 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Djokovic rattled through the first two sets in under an hour, before grinding out the third and hit 22 winners along the way.

Djokovic looked relaxed as he entertained the crowd with impressions of Maria Sharapova - as well as playing a bit of tennis - but admitted he felt the pressure of being tipped to break Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's stranglehold on the grand slams.

"Of course having such a great season [last year] and getting to third place in the world it's a big pleasure and I'm really happy for that," said Djokovic. "It's very flattering when people talk about me in a positive way of course but it puts a lot of pressure on you."

But while Djokovic could hardly have been more impressive, it was yet another disappointing Australian Open for No17 seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who lost to Dutch qualifier Robin Haase in four sets. Ljubicic has now gone out in the first week at Melbourne Park in eight of his nine visits.

No30 seed Radek Stepanek's tournament also came to a premature end as the 29-year-old from the Czech Republic squandered a two-set lead before losing to American Vincent Spadea 2-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3. But the other seeds in action on day two had little trouble reaching the second round. David Nalbandian thrashed Australian wildcard entrant Robert Smeets 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3), Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero and Fernando Verdasco eased past Nicolas Kiefer and Thierry Ascione respectively, while James Blake also beat Nicolas Massu in straight sets.

Marcus Baghdatis, the 2006 Australian Open runner-up, downed the 2002 champion Thomas Johansson 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to set up a mouthwatering second-round meeting with Marat Safin, who overcame Latvia's Ernest Gulbis 6-0, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

Other players to advance to the second round on day two included 21st seed Juan Monaco of Argentina, 2001 semi-finalist Sebastien Grosjean, seventh seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, American Amer Delic, Russia's Dmitry Tursunov and Italy's Simone Bollelli.

Results in full:(25) Fernando Verdasco (Spa) bt Thierry Ascione (Fra) 6-4, 6-0, 6-3(3) Novak Djokovic (Ser) bt Benjamin Becker (Ger) 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)(21) Juan Monaco (Arg) bt Carlos Berlocq (Arg) 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, 6-1Alun Jones (Aus) bt Albert Montanes (Spa) 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2Robin Haase (Ned) bt (17) Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-0, 7-6 (7-1)(10) David Nalbandian (Arg) bt Robert Smeets (Aus) 6-1, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)Simone Bolelli (Ita) bt Rajeev Ram (USA) 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3Janko Tipsarevic (Ser) bt Joseph Sirianni (Aus) 7-5, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 0-6, 6-0Hyung Taik Lee (Kor) bt Chris Guccione (Aus) 7-6 (8-6), 6-3, 6-4(15) Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) bt Thomas Johansson (Swe) 7-6 (7-0), 6-2, 3-6, 6-3(5) David Ferrer (Spa) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) 6-2, 6-2, 6-1(19) Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) bt Steve Darcis (Bel) 6-0, 6-3, 6-0Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) bt Sergio Roitman (Arg) 6-1, 0-6, 6-4, 7-5Denis Istomin (Uzb) bt Lukas Lacko (Svk) 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) bt Filippo Volandri (Ita) 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 7-6 (7-0)Samuel Querrey (USA) bt Olivier Rochus (Bel) 6-3, 6-2, 7-5Marin Cilic (Cro) bt (27) Nicolas Almagro (Spa) 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-2(22) Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) 6-4, 6-3, 6-1Peter Luczak (Aus) bt Mariano Zabaleta (Arg) 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-4Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt John Isner (USA) 6-2, 6-2, 6-4(12) James Blake (USA) bt Nicolas Massu (Chi) 6-3, 6-2, 6-2(13) Tomas Berdych (Cze) bt Werner Eschauer (Aut) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) bt Santiago Ventura (Spa) 6-3, 6-1, 6-3Marat Safin (Rus) bt Ernest Gulbis (Lat) 6-0, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2)Vincent Spadea (USA) bt (30) Radek Stepanek (Cze) 2-6, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 (1) Roger Federer (Swi) bt Diego Hartfield (Arg) 6-0, 6-3, 6-0(32) Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Xavier Malisse (Bel) 6-7 (1-7), 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3Michael Russell (USA) bt Fabio Fognini (Ita) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 (7) Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) bt Konstantin Economidis (Gre) 6-4, 7-6, (7-2) 6-1