The world's top-three stars -- Swiss Roger Federer, Spaniard Rafael Nadal and Serbian Novak Djokovic -- were a trio of second-round winners Wednesday at the $2.955 million Masters Series Hamburg, a clay-court French Open tuneup.
The reigning Hamburg champion Federer whipped Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-3, while the three-time French Open titlist Nadal got past Italian Potito Starace 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) and the high-flying Djokovic drubbed Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-1 at Rothenbaum. Federer is now a perfect 9-0 lifetime against Nieminen.
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all enjoyed opening-round byes this week.
The reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion Federer beat the clay-court king Nadal in last year's Hamburg finale to record his fourth title here in six years (2002, 2004-05, 2007). Nadal topped Federer in a clay-court finale in Monte Carlo just last month.
Djokovic, who captured the Australian Open back in January and was last year's U.S. Open runner-up to Federer, was last week's clay-court champ in Rome.
Top-10 upsets came when improving Serbian Janko Tipsarevic tripped up seventh- seeded American James Blake 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and former world No. 1 Russian Marat Safin, a qualifier this week, took out ninth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4. Safin reached Hamburg finals in 2000 and 2002.
Milder Day-4 upsets occurred when 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic saved a match point before toppling 13th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and Swede Robin Soderling erased 14th-seeded Australian Open runner-up Jo- Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-2, 7-5. Robredo titled here two years ago.
In other second-round action involving seeds, No. 11 Spaniard Carlos Moya beat Belgian lucky-loser Olivier Rochus 7-5, 6-3, No. 12 Argentine Juan Monaco mauled Italian Simone Bolelli 6-2, 6-1 and No. 15 Brit Andy Murray doused Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3.
Additionally, German crowd favorite Nicolas Kiefer downed last week's Italian Masters runner-up Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5, 7-5 and Spaniard Albert Montanes dismissed Argentine Jose Acasuso 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. The Swiss Wawrinka, who lost to Djokovic in last week's finale in Rome, entered the draw here as the 10th- ranked player in the world.
In the third round here on Thursday, Federer will take on Soderling, while Nadal will face Murray and Djokovic will battle Karlovic. Some other third-rounders will pit fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko versus Karlovic, fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer against his countryman Fernando Verdasco and the former French Open champion Moya versus the two-time major titlist Safin.
