Wednesday 16 April 2014 21:20, UK
Roger Federer breezed into the third round of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Radek Stepanek.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic opened his campaign in Monaco with a 45-minute win on Tuesday and Federer's first match of the tournament lasted just six minutes longer.
The 17-time grand slam champion did not let a single break-point opportunity go to waste in a clinical display which sets up a clash with Stepanek’s fellow Czech Lukas Rosol.
At the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where Federer earned his sole ATP title of the year so far, he beat both Stepanek and Rosol along the way.
Stepanek made a poor start to the contest, dropping his opening two service games to go 5-0 down, but did manage to avoid a bagel by holding to love in the sixth game.
Federer easily served things out in the next game, though, and moved further ahead by breaking Stepanek again in the opening game of the second set.
Stepanek did manage to prolong the contest by holding serve twice but Federer was never under any significant pressure and converted match point when his opponent hooked a forehand into the net.
"I was able to get a lot of returns back into play. On clay, when you have the upper hand from the baseline, it's kind of hard to get out of it," Federer said.
"I think that's how it was for Radek today. I had a good start to both sets, then I was solid on my own service games. The next thing you know, you're in the lead and you can hit freely. It was clearly a good match to start my claycourt campaign."
Federer's fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka also made it through to round three after clinching a comfortable 6-0 6-2 victory over Marin Cilic.
Elsewhere in the second round, 10th seed Fabio Fognini defeated Roberto Bautista-Agut 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 to set up a clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
No 8 seed Milos Raonic is also through to the third round after a 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-1 win over Yen-Hsun Lu. He will next face Tommy Robredo, who beat Julien Benneteau 4-6 6-0 6-1.
