Federer, Hewitt, Safin Roll in Openers at Wimbledon

Favorites Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Marat Safin all romped to straight-set victories to open play at Wimbledon Monday, putting the first-round jitters behind them on a day where only two claycourter seeds made early exits.

"I definitely got more pressure off my back now," said Federer who ousted Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu. "Definitely feel sort of relieved, you know, after this start. Looking forward to the rest. Now it's sort of getting interesting."

Hewitt took advantage of the ever-slowing Wimbledon grasscourts, pressing his baseline assault against the speedy Belgian Christophe Rochus.

"First round of any Grand Slam's tough," said the No. 3-seeded Hewitt. "It's a match you just really want to get under your belt, go out there and get through it as quickly as possible. You know, today was no different."

The No. 5 seed Safin, suddenly a convert to the lawns after testing Federer two weeks ago in the final at Halle, took another step forward in easily handling the grass-adept Thai Paradorn Srichaphan.

"I felt really comfortable, actually, and really confident," Safin said. "I wish I could play this level of tennis every day. I'm trying."

Other seeded winners Monday were (8) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Draper), (10) Mario Ancic (d. Summerer), (11) Joachim Johansson (d. Montanes), (21) Fernando Gonzalez (d. Mackin), (22) Dominik Hrbaty (d. Saulnier), (23) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Delgado), (24) Taylor Dent (d. D.Norman 6-1 in the fifth), (25) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Benneteau in five), (26) Feliciano Lopez (d. Phau in five), (29) Nicolas Massu (d. Sargsian), and (31) Mikhail Youzhny (d. Baghdatis in four).

Draper, a former Queen's winner, doubtlessly lost many a punter a Euro (or 50) after conceding Davydenko his career-first "W" on grass.

Seeds ousted were claycourt veterans (13) Tommy Robredo, defeated in straights by Spanish countryman Fernando Verdasco, and French Open runner-up (16) Mariano Puerta, winning only six games off German Lars Burgsmuller.

"Grass is very different, it's faster," clarified Puerta after the loss.

Unseeds into the second round were four cash-money Czechs in Ivo Minar (d. Tabara), Tomas Zib (d. Acasuso), Tomas Berdych (d. Dupuis in four) and Jan Hernych (d. Blake in four), two Brits in Greg Rusedski (d. A.Martin in four) and David Sherwood (d. Mello), two Americans in Justin Gimelstob (d. Garcia) and Kevin Kim (d. Bogdanovic in four), Aussie Mark Philippoussis (d. Beck, setting up a meeting with Safin), Frenchmen Gael Monfils (d. Okun in four) and Jean-Rene Lisnard (d. O.Hernandez who retired in the second set with injury), Italian Alessio Di Mauro (d. Goodall), Swede Jonas Bjorkman (d. Morrison in five), German Florian Mayer (d. Ventura), and Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Enqvist in four).

Thai Danai Udomchoke was tied with Austria's Stefan Koubek 5-7, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 3-3 when the match was suspended due to darkness.

Scheduled for Tuesday are (6) Henman vs. Nieminen, Spadea vs. (4) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, Vanek vs. (2) Roddick, Llodra vs. (9) Grosjean in an all-French, Murray vs. Bastl, (27) Gasquet vs. Kohlschreiber, (15) Coria vs. Behrend, (19) Haas vs. Tipsarevic, Wawrinka vs. Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro, (33) Olivier "The Roach" Rochus vs. Goldstein, (14) Stepanek vs. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri, Pavel vs. Karanusic, Sanguinetti vs. Seppi in an all-Italian, Lu vs. Clement, Calatrava vs. Ketola, Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp vs. Haehnel, Peter "Nuclear" Wessels vs. (28) Novak, (17) Ferrer vs. Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez in an all-Spanish, (30) Soderling vs. Andreev, Elseneer vs. "You Say" Potito Starace, Daniele "Choppin'" Bracciali vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic, Ulihrach vs. (12) T.Johansson, Hanescu vs. Carlsen, "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter vs. (18) Nalbandian, Almagro vs. Tursunov, Mantilla vs. Muller, Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. (20) Ljubicic, Arthurs vs. (32) Volandri, Marray vs. Xavier "X-Man" Malisse, Max "The Beast" Mirnyi vs. Rainer "Shine" Schuettler, Juan "The Principality" Monaco vs. Djokovic, Udomchoke vs. Koubek (to finish), and Kucera vs. Luis "Me So" Horna.