Recuperated Federer fighting fit

TENNIS/Australian Open Championships:The court may have changed from green to blue, but Roger Federer had the scoreboard at Rod Laver Arena ticking over in a familiar fashion as he cruised to victory in his opening match at the Australian Open yesterday.

Federer, the world number one and top seed, dismissed any doubts surrounding his health by crushing Argentina's Diego Hartfield 6-0 6-3 6-0.

Needing just 74 minutes to complete a routine victory, Federer took charge from the outset and barely let up as he reminded the band of challengers who is king of the courts.

A stomach virus ruled Federer out of last week's Kooyong Classic - he spent time in a Melbourne hospital as concerns about his health intensified - but rivals hoping it would slow him at Melbourne Park will be disappointed after the dominant display by the Swiss ace.

"I'm happy with my form tonight," Federer said. "I wish it was like this every night."

The two-time defending champion said he did not think a lack of time on court would hinder his 2008 campaign.

"As long as I'm through, really for me the rest doesn't matter," he said.

"I'm happy with my form. It was important that I didn't have any lapses, mentally, or just gave away easy points. I think I really played pretty tough."

Earlier on day two, powerful Russian Marat Safin secured a second-round showdown with 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis courtesy of a three-set win over Latvian Ernests Gulbis. The world number 58, who won the title in 2005, beat Gulbis 6-0 6-4 7-6.

After two injury-troubled seasons the fiery Russian said his only chance of returning to the peak of his powers was to keep on the court, adding: "It's good to know that you can move around the court without any pain and you can move pretty well and you can play good tennis without any doubts on yourself.

"But also, you need some confidence, build up the confidence, because I didn't play any great tennis lately. So for me to start the year this way, I think it's just to continue."

Last year's beaten finalist, Fernando Gonzalez, followed Safin and Federer into the round of 64 with a straight-sets win over Konstantinos Economidis of Greece.

Other winners in the evening session included American duo James Blake and Michael Russell, Tomas Berdych, Oscar Hernandez of Spain, Austrian Jurgen Melzer, Frenchman Fabrice Santoro and Radek Stepanek.

Crowd violence rocked the event for a second straight year when police were forced to use capsicum spray to quell ugly scenes. Three spectators were ejected from Margaret Court Arena as the Chilean Gonzalez battled Greek youngster Konstantinos Economidis.

Gonzalez' straight sets victory was overshadowed by the violent scenes in the crowd.

In 2007 the tournament was thrown into turmoil on its opening day when violent clashes between Croatian and Serbian fans resulted in 150 people being ejected.

Victoria police said: "The main instigators were identified and were warned about their behaviour by police. The offensive chanting continued and police again approached those involved.

"As police tried to remove one man others in the crowd became aggressive and threatening towards them.

"Fearing for their safety the members have deployed OC spray to keep aggressive patrons at bay."

Superintendent John Cooke of Victoria Police defended the actions of his officers. "Our members have acted with restraint and professionally in a very difficult situation," he said.

"They have our full support and have managed to defuse a hostile situation without any injuries."

Gonzalez said he had enjoyed the banter between the sets of Greek and Chilean fans, but was not fully aware of the police action.

"I don't know exactly what happened with them. I saw that they (the police) threw spray. I know nothing else," he said. The upshot is, that for the second year running, the Open has been left struggling to live up to its image as the "Happy Slam."