<p>Ro-ger Federer struggled to see the ball and felt the conditions at the World Indoor Tournament were a little too warm for his liking but that did not stop the top seed from romping to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Slovenian Grega Zemlja in the first round on Wednesday.</p>.<p> <br /><br />Playing his first competitive match for almost three weeks, the Swiss defending champion struggled with his first serve in front of a capacity 10,500 crowd but he still completed victory in 58 minutes. <br /><br />He won 10 straight points in the first set to take a 4-2 lead and from then on Federer allowed his opponent only two more games to wrap up his 10th straight win in Rotterdam. <br /><br />Fourth seed Richard Gasquet joined the 17-times Grand Slam champion in the second round with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki. <br /><br />Gasquet will next face Marcos Baghdatis who advanced after Benoit Paire pulled out injured. The Cypriot was leading 6-0, 6-7, 4-0. Gilles Simon, seeded fifth, and Julien Benneteau completed a good day for France. Simon eased past Italian qualifier Matteo Viola 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinal, while Benneteau also dropped just four games in his 6-1 6-3 win over Victor Hanescu. <br /><br />Nadal out of doubles<br /><br />Former world number one Rafael Nadal withdrew suddenly from the doubles at the Brazil Open on Wednesday because of what organisers said was a desire to preserve his strength for the singles competition. Just moments before he and David Nalbandian were due to play Horacio Zeballos and Oliver Marach on Wednesday, the pair withdrew. <br />Azarenka dominates<br /><br />Top seed Victoria Azarenka served up a ‘double bagle’ (6-0, 6-0) to Christina McHale of the United States to march into the third round of the Qatar Open on Thursday. <br /><br />The Belarussian's world number one spot is under threat at the $2.3 million event where American Serena Williams and Russian Maria Sharapova can reclaim top spot. Eight seed Samantha Stosur posted a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, while Caroline Wozniacki edged out Germany’s Mona Barthel 7-6 (6), 6-3.</p>
<p>Ro-ger Federer struggled to see the ball and felt the conditions at the World Indoor Tournament were a little too warm for his liking but that did not stop the top seed from romping to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Slovenian Grega Zemlja in the first round on Wednesday.</p>.<p> <br /><br />Playing his first competitive match for almost three weeks, the Swiss defending champion struggled with his first serve in front of a capacity 10,500 crowd but he still completed victory in 58 minutes. <br /><br />He won 10 straight points in the first set to take a 4-2 lead and from then on Federer allowed his opponent only two more games to wrap up his 10th straight win in Rotterdam. <br /><br />Fourth seed Richard Gasquet joined the 17-times Grand Slam champion in the second round with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki. <br /><br />Gasquet will next face Marcos Baghdatis who advanced after Benoit Paire pulled out injured. The Cypriot was leading 6-0, 6-7, 4-0. Gilles Simon, seeded fifth, and Julien Benneteau completed a good day for France. Simon eased past Italian qualifier Matteo Viola 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinal, while Benneteau also dropped just four games in his 6-1 6-3 win over Victor Hanescu. <br /><br />Nadal out of doubles<br /><br />Former world number one Rafael Nadal withdrew suddenly from the doubles at the Brazil Open on Wednesday because of what organisers said was a desire to preserve his strength for the singles competition. Just moments before he and David Nalbandian were due to play Horacio Zeballos and Oliver Marach on Wednesday, the pair withdrew. <br />Azarenka dominates<br /><br />Top seed Victoria Azarenka served up a ‘double bagle’ (6-0, 6-0) to Christina McHale of the United States to march into the third round of the Qatar Open on Thursday. <br /><br />The Belarussian's world number one spot is under threat at the $2.3 million event where American Serena Williams and Russian Maria Sharapova can reclaim top spot. Eight seed Samantha Stosur posted a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, while Caroline Wozniacki edged out Germany’s Mona Barthel 7-6 (6), 6-3.</p>