Federer, other seeds go 6-0 in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- Second-seeded Roger Federer won sets in very different ways Tuesday in a first-round match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

Federer came away a 6-0, 7-6 (8-6) winner over Michael Llodra. Federer won 78 percent of the points -- losing just two when receiving serve -- in winning the first set in 14 minutes.

The second set took nearly an hour, however, before Federer finished off the tiebreaker. Where Llodra was just 2-of-14 points serving in the first set, he won 71 percent serving in the second. Federer was even better, taking 75 percent for the match and not losing his serve.

Federer was included in a 6-0 sweep for seeded players Tuesday with only third-seeded Andy Murray, who beat Michael Berrer 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, needing a third set to advance.

No. 4-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topped Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 while fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych and No. 7-seeded Janko Tipsarevic both won 6-2, 6-2. Berdych eliminated Benjamin Becker and Tipsarevic beat Igor Kunitsyn.

Eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, in the day's final match, defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Also advancing Tuesday were Sergiy Stakhovsky, Flavio Cipolla, Marco Chiudinelli, Mikhail Youzhny and Feliciano Lopez.