Federer sizzles, Nadal deals with hot Potito

By Kevin Fylan

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Roger Federer began the defence of his Hamburg Masters title with an effortless 6-1 6-3 victory over Jarkko Nieminen on Wednesday, while Rafael Nadal battled to beat Italy's Potito Starace 6-4 7-6.

The top two in the world were joined in the third round by the man fast coming up behind them, Novak Djokovic. The third seeded Serb was just as impressive as Federer in beating Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-3 6-1 in the day's final match.

Federer, who beat Nadal in last year's final to win the Hamburg title for the fourth time, needed just 57 minutes to rack up his ninth straight-sets victory from nine meetings with Finn Nieminen and reach the third round at a stroll.

"I know I've had a lot of good results against him but he can cause problems so I'm very happy," Federer said at a news conference after a satisfying clay-court display.

Nadal had to work a lot harder to beat the unseeded Starace and was lucky to come through the second-set tiebreak 8-6.

Starace double faulted at set-point leading 6-5 in that tiebreak and the Italian immediately put a simple forehand into the net to gift the world number two a match-point.

That was enough for Nadal, who will next face Andy Murray after the British 15th seed won easily against Frenchman Gilles Simon, 6-3 6-3 out on court one.

"I'm not expected to win the match at all," said Murray, who will be celebrating his 21st birthday on Thursday. "But if I can perform as I did today I think I can give him a good game."