DUBAI, 3 March 2004 — World No. 1 Roger Federer repeated his Australian Open final victory over Marat Safin with a 7-6, 7-6 win to reach the second round of the Dubai Open yesterday.

The defending champion and Dutchman Sjeng Schalken were the only two seeds to survive the day’s play. Second seed Guillermo Coria and fourth seed David Nalbandian both lost their first round ties, joining Rainer Schuettler, Mark Philippoussis and Tim Henman, who all went out on Monday.

The one remaining seeded player, seventh seed Paradorn Srichaphan plays Dominik Hrbaty today.

Federer’s serve was his only weakness against Russian Safin but it was able to get him out of trouble when he needed it. It came to his rescue at 4-4 in the first set, when the Swiss faced two break points that would have left Safin serving for the set. Four strong serves allowed Federer to hold, and he went on to dominate the tiebreak.

“I thought I was putting myself in trouble with my serving,” said Federer. “I was serving much better in Australia but the conditions were heavy and it was very difficult to hit a winner.”

With Safin feeling fresher than he had during their Australian Open meeting, the two were more evenly matched and there were several furiously contested rallies.

Safin, a wildcard entrant, thought that he had competed well against the man who beat him 7-6, 6-4, 6-2 for the Australian Open title last month.

Federer will next meet Spain’s Tommy Robredo, who defeated Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-4. Eighth seed Schalken survived to reach the second round with an untroubled 6-3, 6-1 win over Sargis Sargsian of Armenia.

But second seed Coria lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, and fourth seed Nalbandian fell 6-3, 6-4 to Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. Both Argentine Coria and Youzhny struggled to find their rhythm in the first two sets but produced several dramatic rallies in the third. Youzhny moved better, and he struck several fine backhand winners to make him a worthy winner.

Kiefer Advances but Dent Departs Early

In Scottsdale, Arizona, 3 March 2004 — Seventh-seeded Nicolas Kiefer, coming off his first ATP final outside his native Germany since 2000, beat American Brian Vahaly 6-3, 6-3 here Monday to advance at the Templeton Classic. Kiefer, who lost last month’s Memphis final to Sweden’s Joachim Johansson, advanced to a second-round match at the $380,000 hardcourt event against Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, who ousted Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4.

Kiefer, 26, struggled with injuries in the last two years and fell from sixth in the world rankings to 72nd. He lost six matches in a row before his Memphis run. Kiefer, 5-5 in 2004, fired eight aces to win in 74 minutes. Germany’s Lars Burgsmuller also reached the second round, defeating American Alex Kim 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Kim was a lucky loser who made the main draw when American fifth seed Taylor Dent withdrew due to a stomach virus.

“Some of the guys have had a stomach bug going around and I had an upset stomach two days ago,” Dent said. “Last night I slept for half an hour but all the time I was awake I was kneeling over the (toilet) bowl.”

South Africa’s Wesley Moodie rallied to eliminate France’s Anthony Dupuis 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-2. Moodie, ranked 88th, will next face either US qualifier Tripp Phillips or American third seed Robby Ginepri.

Shaughnessy Eases Through to Second Round in Qatar

Meghann Shaughnessy put on a confident display to defeat Australia’s Alicia Molik 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the WTA Qatar Open yesterday. The American Fed Cup player got her first serves in most of the time and produced some superb returns.

Shaughnessy will next meet Japanese fourth seed Ai Sugiyama, who had a bye in the first round. Shaughnessy, 24, broke Molik in the fifth game of the first set and then in the third and ninth games of the second for an easy victory.

Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, who lost the Dubai final to world No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne, recorded a runaway 6-1, 6-1 win over Stephanie Cohen-Aloro. There were also first round victories for China’s Li Ting and Zheng Jie. Li beat Belgium’s Els Callens 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 while Zheng posted a 6-2, 6-3 win over Stephanie Gehrlein of Germany.