Federer breezes into Monte Carlo 3rd round

MONTE CARLO, Monaco, April 12 (UPI) -- Roger Federal barely got warmed up Tuesday, dispatching German Philip Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-1 in 50 minutes to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

Federer, seeded second, called it "clearly a good start" to his first clay-court tournament of the year.

"I was able to do all the things I was hoping to," the Swiss star said. I was consistent; consistently dangerous, too. I felt well in the offense, and in the defense I was fine."

He will go up against Marin Cilic-Pere Riba Thursday.

Tomas Berdych also reached the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Belgian qualifier Olivier Rochus. The fifth-seeded Czech will face Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia Thursday. Ljubicic eliminated 12th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in the second round.

In other second-round play, Canadian Milos Raonic topped Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 7-5.

In first-round action, winners included 16th-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon, Italian Fabio Fognini, Argentine qualifier Maximo Gonzalez, and Spaniards Riba, Albert Montanes, Feliciano Lopez and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal will play Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen Wednesday.