Federer wins easily in Rotterdam

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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Roger Federer opened defense of his ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament title with a 58-minute win Wednesday in the Netherlands.

Federer, the world No. 2-ranked player, had little trouble in a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Grega Zemlja. Federer won three-quarters of the points on serve and saved the only two break point Zemlja managed.

He also posted a pair of breaks in each set.

No. 5-seeded Gilles Simon collected a quarterfinals spot with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Matteo Viola. Simon had five breaks in eight receiving games.

Also in the second round, Julien Benneteau handled Victor Hanescu 6-1, 6-3 without facing a break point and Grigor Dimitrov fired 10 aces and dropped only nine points in 11 service games in a 7-5, 7-3 decision over Nikolay Davydenko.

No. 4-seeded Richard Gasquet, coming off a tournament win last week in Montpellier, France, posted a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 first-round win over Viktor Troicki while Marcos Baghdatis was up 6-0, 6-7 (3-7), 4-0 when Benoit Paire retired.

Also Wednesday, Matthias Bachinger eliminated sixth-seeded Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-4.