Easy for Fed, not so for Nadal
Easy for Fed, not so for Nadal 
From Ryland James in Hamburg, Germany
Former Australian Captain May 15, 2008
ROGER Federer and Novak Djokovic both cruised into the third round of the Hamburg Masters Series but it was a struggle for clay-court king Rafael Nadal.
Nadal, No.2 in the world, needed more than two hours to make the last sixteen before he claimed a 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win over Italy’s Potito Starace.
Having made an early exit in Rome last week, again Nadal did not have things his own way and had to save a set point in the second set before winning the tiebreak.
“I didn’t have much time to practice, because of a blister on my foot, so I am reasonably happy to get through,'’ said Nadal, who plays Britain’s Andy Murray in the next round.
“I have had two tough games against Andy already this year and I expect the same.'’
But No.3 seed and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who is closing in on Nadal’s world No.2 status, wasted no time in blasting his way past Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3 6-1.
And Swiss master Federer needed less than an hour to see off Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 6-3. In the 18 sets the pair have now contested, during their nine previous matches, Nieminen has yet to win a single one.
“It was a good performance, I was happy with the way I served from the baseline,'’ said world No.1 Federer, who beat Nadal in last year’s final.
“I have had so much success here, I have a good feeling about the place. When my first point went straight down the line, I thought, ‘This place works well for me’.”
Other seeds fell elsewhere at the Am Rothenbaum stadium on a day of upsets.
No.7 seed James Blake was knocked out 4-6 6-3 6-3 by Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic and 13th-seed Tommy Robredo also crashed out to Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic after losing 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-3).
And Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 14th seed, made a sharp exit when he went down in straight sets 6-2 7-5 to Sweden’s Robin Soderling.
But former world No.1 Marat Safin continued his comeback with a straight-sets win over No.9 seed Tomas Berdych in the second round.
The Russian is building some momentum having qualified through the main draw and will play Spain’s Carlos Moya in the third round after the Spaniard’s 7-5 6-3 win over Belgium’s Olivier Rochus.
And there were no problems for Murray or Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who enjoyed straight-sets wins to make the third round.
Murray came through 6-3 6-3 against France’s Gilles Simon. Monaco also made it through to the third round after the No.12 seed breezed past Italy’s Simone Bolelli 6-2 6-1.
Local hero Nicolas Kiefer reached the Hamburg third round for the first time since 2001 after he beat World No.10 and last week’s Rome finalist Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5 7-5 on centre court.
Agence France-Presse