LAS VEGAS (Nevada), March 4: Defending champion and second seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia crushed Russian Marat Safin 6-2, 6-1 in the Las Vegas Open first round on Monday.

Hewitt converted four of six break points and won 83 per cent of his first serve points to clinch victory in 58 minutes.

Safin double-faulted three times and made just 40 per cent of his first serve points.

Hewitt became only the second man, after American Andre Agassi, to win the Las Vegas title three times with a straight-sets victory over Austrian Juergen Melzer in last year’s final.

Earlier, fourth seed Guillermo Canas of Argentina maintained his perfect record against Thomas Johansson by beating the Swede 6-3, 7-6.

The 30-year-old from Buenos Aires won two break points out of five to seal victory in just over an hour-and-a-half on the Stadium Court.

Canas, sidelined for 15 months for a doping ban before returning to action in September 2006, has never lost to Johansson in three career meetings.

Eighth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer, a finalist in Las Vegas in 2004, fired down eight aces to beat fellow German Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-3.

In other matches, unseeded American Sam Querrey scraped past Sebastien Grosjean of France 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 and Russian Evgeny Korolev, a surprise semi-finalist last year, beat Argentina’s Sergio Roitman 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Results:

First round: 2-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) bt Marat Safin (Russia) 6-2, 6-1; Robby Ginepri (US) bt Xavier Malisse (Belgium) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Sam Querrey (US) bt Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-8); Evgeny Korolev (Russia) bt Sergio Roitman (Argentina) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; 8-Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) bt Benjamin Becker (Germany) 6-4, 6-3; 4-Guillermo Canas (Argentina) bt Thomas Johansson (Sweden) 6-3 7-6.

DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS

DUBAI: Andy Murray produced a sizzling display from the baseline to hand world No 1 Roger Federer his first opening-round defeat since 2004 with a 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory at the Dubai Championships on Monday (also partly reported in Tuesday’s edition).

With neither player facing a breakpoint in the first set, Murray was quick off the mark in ensuing tiebreak.

The 20-year-old charged into a 5-2 lead and held a set point at 6-5 but squandered it with a weak return.

Federer made the most of the reprieve and bagged the breaker 8-6 thanks to a forehand error from Murray.

The unseeded Murray capitalised on the only breakpoint in the second set by firing a forehand crosscourt winner to break Federer in the sixth game.

While Murray fought well for every ball on the baseline and served well throughout, unleashing 10 aces, the top seed made numerous forehand errors and looked the weaker player in the third set.

After fighting off two break points in the opening game, he was broken to love at 2-2, and Murray dropped just two points in his final three service games to earn a well-deserved victory.

Federer was playing just his second tournament of the year, and his first match since losing to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Australian Open in January.

Fourth seeded Spaniard David Ferrer beat Germany’s Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-0, fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeated Kuwait’s Mohammed Al Ghareeb 6-4, 6-0.

Seventh-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet beat Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-4.

Results: 7-Richard Gasquet (France) bt Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-4, 6-4; Andy Murray (Britain) bt 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-4; 5-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) bt Mohammed Al Ghareeb (Kuwait) 6-4, 6-0; Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-1; 4-David Ferrer (Spain) bt Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-3, 6-0; Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) bt Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 6-4, 6-4; Fabrice Santoro (France) bt Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-3, 6-4; Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Jan Minar (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4.

SHVEDOVA OUSTED

BANGALORE: Unseeded Uzbek Akgul Amanmuradova pulled off a major upset in the WTA Bangalore Open when she beat defending champion Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia in the first round on Monday.

Amanmuradova was more consistent than the 89th-ranked Russian, winning 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in 103 minutes.

Shvedova’s best came in the second set when she kept pressure on the Uzbek to level the scores but failed to match her rival in the decider, dropping her serve in the sixth game to lose the match.

Hungarian teenager Agnes Szavay, seeded fifth, faced little resistance in her opening match when she defeated wild-card Shikha Uberoi of India 6-1, 6-4.

Sixth-seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer overcame an opening-set deficit to down Japanese Akiko Morigami 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in another first-round encounter.

Japanese Aiko Nakamura also advanced to the second round when she rallied to down Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-2.

Results:

First round: Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzbekistan) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (Russia) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; 5-Agnes Szavay (Hungary) bt Shikha Uberoi (India) 6-1, 6-4; Aiko Nakamura (Japan) bt Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-2; 6-Sybille Bammer (Austria) bt Akiko Morigami (Japan) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.—Agencies