Federer falls in Dubai

Roger Federer, the top seed and four time champion, lost his opening round match to Andy Murray 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4. Murray is now 2-1 against Federer in his career, and 48 of the 53 points on his first serve. Also, Murray didn’t face a break point in the match. For Federer, this is the first time he has lost a first round match since the summer of 2004, and now he has lost two consecutive matches this season. He hasn’t played since he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open. Murray will now take on Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in the second round, whom he is 2-0 against.

In other action on Monday, fourth-seeded David Ferrer took down Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-0 in the first round. Ferrer will face Olivier Rochus in the second round. Also winning were fifth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko and seventh-seeded Ricahrd Gasquet. Davydenko beat Mohammed Ghareeb 6-4, 6-0 and Gasquet took down Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4. Davydenko will now take on Jan Hernych while Gasquet will play Igor Andreev.

Play has already begun today, and second seeded Rafael Nadal needed three sets to beat German Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Nadal will face Russian qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh in the second round. Joining Nadal in the second round are eighth-seeded Tomas Berdych, Paul-Henri Mathieu, and Feliciano Lopez.

Berdych defeated Frenchmen Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2 and will take on Lopez in the second round. Lopez moved past Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the second round.

Finally, Paul-Henri Mathieu beat qualifier Joseph Sirianni 6-4, 6-4 and will take on either sixth-seeded Andy Roddick of Juan Carlos Ferrero in the second round.

Defending champion Hewitt opens with win

Australian Lleyton Hewitt blew past former world #1 Marat Safin 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the Tennis Channel Open in Las Vegas. Hewitt, who is the defending champion, will play either Jonas Bjorkman or Julien Benneteau in the second round.

Also winning were fourth-seeded Guillermo Canas, eighth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer, Americans Robby Ginepri and Sam Querrey, and the talented young Russian Evgeny Korolev. Canas will face either Victor Hanescu or Chris Guccione in the second round. Kiefer will play Querrey, Ginepri will play either third-seeded Marcos Baghdatis or Vince Spadea, and Korolev awaits either Fernando Gonzalez or Dudi Sela.

Szavay, Bammer win openers

Talented Hungarian teenager Agnes Szavay won her first round match at the Canara Bank Bangalore Open in Bangalore, India. The fifth-seeded Szavay defeated Indian wild card Shikha Uberoi 6-1, 6-4 and will play Akgul Amanmuradova in the second round.

Sixth-seeded Sybille Bammer also won her first round match, defeating Akiko Morigami 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. She will face either Russian Anastasia Rodionova or Tiantian Sun in the second round.

The top four seeds – Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and Patty Schnyder – all received byes into the second round.