Fed, Nadal safely through

Federer: Routine win

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Defending champion Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both moved into round three in Hamburg with straight set victories on Wednesday.

However, the contests proved markedly different with Federer breezing past Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 6-3 and Nadal given a real workout before edging out Potito Starace 6-4 7-6.

Federer had few problems as he extended his dominant record over Nieminen to nine victories without reply.

Indeed, the duo have now contested a total of 18 sets with the Finn yet to win a single one and that statistic never looked like changing on Wednesday as the world number one picked his opponent off almost at will to wrap up the match inside an hour.

"It was a good performance, I was happy with the way I served from the baseline," declared Federer.

"I have had so much success here, I have a good feeling about the place. When my first point went straight down the line, I thought 'This place works well for me'."

Battle for Nadal

By contrast, Nadal was forced to display all of his renowned battling qualities on clay to get the better of Starace.

The Italian opened up a 3-1 lead in the first set before Nadal reeled off four straight games to take the upper hand and then served out at 5-4 to edge a set ahead.

That looked to have broken Starace's resistance as the Spaniard claimed an early break to go 2-0 ahead in the second, but his opponent - roared on by the crowd - broke straight back as he moved 3-2 up.

After some quality exchanges, the set went to a tie-break that see-sawed first one way then the other.

Nadal looked to have made the decisive move when his rival netted a cross-court backhand to hand him a 5-3 lead, but Starace produced a couple of delightful drop-shots and a solid backhand volley to bring up a set-point at 6-5.

But he then choked with a double-fault and Nadal needed no second invitation as he took the next two points to close out the match.

Safin through, Blake out

Elsewhere, there were wins for Marat Safin who overcame Tomas Berdych 7-5 6-4, Janko Tipsarevic who beat James Blake 4-6 6-3 6-3 and big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic who ousted Tommy Robredo 3-6 6-2 7-6 (7-3).

Meanwhile, Nicolas Kiefer ensured there is still some German interest in the tournament as he edged a high-quality encounter against Staislas Wawrinka 7-5 7-5.