Wimbledon champion Roger Federer displayed deft touch at the Kooyong International while U.S. Open champ Andy Roddick exuded brute force on Wednesday.
Switzerland's Federer blended finesse with force to beat Thomas Johansson 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 in the eight-man invitational warm-up event for next week's Australian Open.
Following the world number two onto court was top-ranked Roddick and he wasted no time blasting fellow-American Robby Ginepri 6-1, 6-3.
"I was seeing the ball pretty well, playing pretty well out there," a grinning Roddick told reporters.
Federer can look forward to matches against the likes of Roddick and Andre Agassi later in the week should Agassi win his match here on Wednesday.
However Johansson and Ginepri are not out of the action. Under the format of the event, they will get to face other players who lose their opening matches.
"All right," was Federer's low-key response to a question about his form.
"I've played a couple of matches this year so it wasn't the first. I'm not concerned or anything...but I am pleased I have got a few more matches coming up and hopefully I can play better."
Swatting the ball almost effortlessly around court, the stylish and free-hitting Federer made Johansson's compact groundstrokes look industrial at the start.
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The pony-tailed Swiss player's viciously cut backhands sliced through the warm wind swirling inside the showcourt arena and his forehand was too powerful to be deviated by the frequent gusts.
Leaping into the air like a latter day Pete Sampras, Federer pinged a smash away into the outer reaches of the arena to clinch the opening set in 33 minutes.
In fairness, Johansson must still be feeling his way around the court having missed almost all of 2003 through a knee injury. Federer possesses every shot in the book and is constantly coming up with new ones.
The match-up, forget Johansson's protected ranking of 23, seemed hardly fair.
But rusty as he is, Johansson, Australian Open champion in 2002, knows his way around a tennis court and stuck to his task.
Never flashy and always solid, the Swede kept his nose in front in the second set, gnawing away at the Federer groundstrokes.
He forced a tiebreak and, against the odds, won it with sharp returning.
It proved to be no more than a delaying tactic, though, as Federer swiftly re-imposed his will.
