Djokovic, Federer stroll on in Paris

World number one Novak Djokovic has overcome Potito Starace 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 6-1 to advance to the second round of the French Open.

Djokovic was given a tough contest on Monday by his 30-year-old Italian opponent but served strongly to win in three sets.

The 25-year-old Serb put 77 percent of first serves in play and did not provide Starace with a break-point opportunity for the entire match.

Djokovic hit 39 winners as he defeated Starace, who is ranked 97th in the world.

Roger Federer, the third seed at Roland Garros, had a solid hit-out on his way to the second round, defeating Germany's Tobias Kamke 6-2 7-5 6-3.

The Swiss hit 38 winners and was ruthless with Kamke's second serve.

Federer won 74 percent of points when Kamke missed his first serve and broke the German eight times.

Czech Republic's seventh seed Tomas Berdych had little trouble overcoming Dudi Sela in his first-round clash, winning 6-3 6-4 6-1, Gilles Simon (11th seed) ground down Ryan Harrison 3-6 7-5 6-4 6-1, while Milos Raonic (19th) defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4 6-2 6-2.

German 24th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber knocked off Matthew Ebden 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4), Bernard Tomic (25th seed) defeated Andreas Haider-Maurer 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-3 and Viktor Troicki (28th) won 4-6 6-3 5-7 6-3 6-2 over Thomaz Bellucci.

Paris-born Michael Llodra won in front of his home crowd, overcoming Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 3-6 6-3, while Santiago Giraldo won 5-7 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-4) against fellow Colombian Alejandro Falla.

Monday saw the end of Spanish 15th seed Feliciano Lopez who retired against Florent Serra of France while trailing 5-0 in the first set.

Lopez blamed an injury he picked up during practice on Thursday for his retirement.

The Spaniard was one of two players to retire on Monday, with Canadian Frank Dancevic pulling out while 4-0 down in his opening set against Martin Klizan.

John Isner, the 10th seed from the USA, looked strong in his 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory over Rogerio Dutra da Silva, while Marcel Granollers (20th seed) defeated Joao Souza 6-2 3-6 6-3 6-4, Andreas Seppi (22nd) overcame Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 7-5 and Kevin Anderson (31st) won a marathon five-set match 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (6-8) 4-6 6-1 11-9 over Rui Machado.

Slovakia's Blaz Kavcic survived a comeback from former world number one Lleyton Hewitt to win 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3, while Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan triumphed 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 2-6 6-4 against Ernests Gulbis.

Other first round winners on Monday were Tunisia's Malek Jaziri, Horacio Zeballos of Argentina Poland's Lukasz Kubot, Adrian Ungur of Romania and Jesse Levine of the USA.

France's Arnaud Clement and Paul-Henri Mathieu and Brian Baker of the USA were also successful.

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