Kuerten and Safin thunder through in Hamburg
Ossian Shine
Second seed Gustavo Kuerten and sixth seed Marat Safin thundered through to the second round of the Hamburg Masters on Tuesday as the heavyweights opened their campaigns at the $2.8 million claycourt event.
Kuerten overcame a rain delay and a gutsy challenge from Germany's Nicolas Kiefer to win 6-4 7-5 while Safin crushed Italy's Davide Sanguinetti 6-3 6-4.
Kuerten, recently recovered from hip surgery, looked in great form on the Rothenbaum Centre Court which closed its roof in the second set as the Brazilian closed out victory.
Looking to defend his French Open crown later this month, Kuerten will next play Romania's Andrei Pavel.
"I am happy with my play so far, but I need more time on court if I am to reach my French Open form," he said.
Safin looked untroubled in the final match of the day, sweeping past Sanguinetti's finesse with some brutal power play.
He next meets Spain's Alberto Martin who won his opening match on Monday.
SWIRLING WIND
Safin was joined in the second round by American Andy Roddick as the teenager fought a viciously swirling wind and fellow American Todd Martin to win his match 7-6 6-2.
Australian Open champion and eighth seed Thomas Johansson also entered the winners' circle, clambering back from a set down to beat fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-7 6-3 6-3.
But France's Arnaud Clement made an early exit, falling 6-4 6-4 to the claycourt expertise of Argentine Mariano Zabaleta.
A former world top 10 player, Clement's ranking has slipped to 46 and he has won just six ATP matches all year.
"I can't seem to keep my concentration at the top level," the former Australian Open runner-up said.
"I don't know what it is but it is getting me down."
David Sanchez and Adrian Voinea both beat last minute replacement opponents to advance.
Spain's Sanchez had been due to play Andre Agassi but when the American withdrew on Monday he was replaced in the draw by Fernando Meligeni.
The Brazilian was an entirely different proposition for Sanchez and the Spaniard romped through 6-2 6-2.
Voinea beat Greg Rusedski's replacement Attila Savolt, of Hungary, 7-5 7-5.
EXPERIENCED COMPATRIOT
As the wind swirled around the hi-tech Centre Court, 13th-seeded Roddick lost his temper on several occasions in the opening set of his match, hurling his racket to the ground in frustration.
He stuck to his task, though, and still managed to match his experienced compatriot and force a tiebreak, where his power told.
Roddick began to settle in the second set and pulled away to record the victory.
He will next face Germany's Rainer Schuettler who beat Croatian Ivan Ljubicic 3-6 7-5 6-4.
"It is difficult conditions out there... the wind was really swirling, blowing pretty hard," Roddick said afterwards.
"But I am improving from the baseline. When I have been feeling good, feeling healthy, I have strung together some good results."
In other action, Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic beat Hicham Arazi when the Moroccan retired injured while trailing 4-0, while Czech 14th seed Jiri Novak beat American James Blake 7-6 6-2.
