Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal began impressively the road which most people hope will lead the two tennis legends to their 21st meeting at the opening tournament of the 2010 ATP World Tour, the Qatar Open. Federer, the Wimbledon and French Open champion, beat Belgium's Christophe Rochus, the world No. 86, for the loss of only three games (6-1, 6-2), while Nadal, the Australian Open champion, gradually warmed to his task and eventually got well on top while conceding just six games (6-3, 6-3) to Italy's Simone Bolelli, ranked 93. Federer next plays Evegeny Korolev, a Russian ranked just outside the top 50. Nadal plays Potito Starace, the former top 30 Italian. Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky sprang a surprise by knocking out fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny 7-6, 6-2. Fifth-seeded Serb Viktor Troicki hit 10 aces in a 6-1, 7-5 win over Daniel Gimeno of Spain that took just 56 minutes. Spaniard Albert Montanes, seeded sixth, lost 6-2, 7-5 to Latvian Ernests Gulbis while seventh seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia defeated Italian Fabio Fognini 6-4, 6-4. Clijsters maintains form Kim Clijsters' career comeback continued to gather momentum Tuesday with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Australia's Alicia Molik at the Brisbane International. Top-seeded Clijsters won the first eight games in the second-round match until Molik, playing her first top-tier tournament since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, held serve. Clijsters won the US Open last September in only her third tournament back from more than two years in retirement, becoming the first mother to win a Grand Slam singles title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at Wimbledon in 1980. Former No. 1-ranked Ivanovic struggled in a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Timea Bacsinszky in a late match to reach the quarterfinals. After dropping the second set, Ivanovic started aggressively in the third by winning the first seven points to hold serve and then earn triple break point. But Bacsinszky rallied to hold and the deciding set remained on serve. Ivanovic was serving for the match at 5-3 in the third and was two points away at 30-30 but was broken. In the next game, she earned triple match point with a forehand winner and converted with a forehand winner down the line to finish the match in 1 hour, 41 minutes. On the men's side, third-seeded Gael Monfils edged American Taylor Dent 7-6 (1), 6-7 (5), 6-2 in a night match that didn't feature a service break until the fifth game of the third set. James Blake continued his dominance over fifth-seeded Sam Querrey, improving to 6-1 in head-to-heads with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over his fellow American. In other first-round matches, 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus beat American Mardy Fish 7-5, 7-5 and will next face fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych, a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Australian qualifier Nick Lindahl. Australia's Carsten Ball had a 7-5, 6-1 win over Germany's Mischa Zverev to set up a match against top-seeded Andy Roddick for a place in the quarterfinals.
