DUBAI: Roger Federer won his first match since losing in the Australian Open semifinals by comfortably beating Indian wild card Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the Dubai Championships Tuesday. Novak Djokovic, who beat Federer in Melbourne and went on to his second Grand Slam title, won his Dubai opener against Michael Llodra of France by the same score. Djokovic also said he was working on his serve-and-volley and played doubles Tuesday with his brother Marko, losing to Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes 6-4, 6-1. Also, seventh-seeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus retired against Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan because of the flu while trailing 4-0 in the first set. Gilles Simon of France toppled fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-5. In other matches, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-0, while Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany upset Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-1, 7-6 (2). Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan retired due to an undisclosed illness after falling behind 5-0 in the first set against Feliciano Lopez of Spain. Kuznetsova falls In Doha, Svetlana Kuznetsova suffered the humiliation of a first round 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Shahar Peer in the Qatar Ladies Open Tuesday just 48 hours after finishing runner-up to Caroline Wozniacki in Dubai. Victoria Azarenka's poor start to the year extended when she lost to Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. The other seed in action, No. 5 Jelena Jankovic, handled Oman wild card Fatma Al- Nabhani 6-1, 6-3 defeat. Kaia Kanepi of Estonia withdrew because of a fever, leaving Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai to beat Swiss lucky loser Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2. Jie Zheng was beaten by Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-2. In late matches Sania Mirza of India beat Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia 6-2, 7-5; Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic beat Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 7-6(4), 6-2; Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia beat Jarmila Groth of Australia 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8); Vera Dushevina of Russia beat Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez off Spain 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(1). Fish thru In Florida, US second seed Mardy Fish needed only 20 minutes to reach the second round of the $442,500 ATP Delray Beach International Championships Tuesday when German rival Bjorn Phau retired. Fish led 5-0 and had lost only six points in the match. South African fifth seed Kevin Anderson rallied to beat US lucky loser Donald Young 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-2. Serbian sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic also advanced, winning an epic marathon tie-breaker and a lopsided one to eliminate Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (16/14), 7-6 (7/1). Tipsarevic will next face Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic, who eliminated Colombia's Robert Farah 6-1, 6-4. Japan's Kei Nishikori also opened with a victory, downing Argentina's Brian Dabul 6-2, 7-6 (7/5). He will next face US wild card James Blake, who ousted German seventh seed Benjamin Becker Monday. Croatia's Ivan Dodig also reached the second round, dispatching Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. On Monday, John Isner was beaten 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (13) by Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
