Roger Federer eased into the second round of the French Open with a straight sets victory over Tobias Kamke of Germany.
2009 champion cruises into second round at Roland Garros
Roger Federer eased into the second round of the French Open with a straight sets victory over Tobias Kamke of Germany.
Federer, playing in his 50th consecutive grand slam tournament, recorded a 6-2 7-5 6-3 victory - the win taking him level with Jimmy Connors' record for most grand slam match wins of 233.
The Swiss world number three will now face Adrian Ungur in the second round after the Romanian's surprise win over David Nalbandian of Argentina.
Federer was some way from his fluent best but still had too much for Kamke to provide him with any genuine problems.
Having cruised through the first set, the 16-time grand slam winner found himself a break down in the second but upped his game to break back and then break once more to establish a commanding advantage.
The third set was routine as Federer did the necessary, completing a solid start to his bid for a first grand slam crown since the 2010 Australian Open.
"It's a big record, because that was longevity. Jimmy is obviously one of the greats of all time, and was around for 20 years," said Federer.
"This is my 13th or 14th French Open. It all started back in '99 against Rafter, and I have hardly missed any Grand Slams.
"I love the big tournaments. I have been so successful for such a long time and to already tie that record which is 30 years old is pretty incredible, so I'm very happy."
Eventful five-setters
There were three eventful five-set matches on Monday, with 31st seed Kevin Anderson winning his clash against Rui Machado, which had been stopped at 7-7 in the fifth last night, 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (6-8) 4-6 6-1 11-9.
Unpredictable Latvian Ernests Gulbis battled back from two sets and 5-1 down to level his match against Mikhail Kukushkin only to lose 6-4 7-6 (7/4) 5-7 2-6 6-4, while French veteran Arnaud Clement was involved in a titanic struggle with Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Clement held match point on the Russian's serve at 6-2 3-6 4-6 7-6 (7/2) 5-4
when Bogomolov Jr was forced to retire because of severe cramp.
Australian Bernard Tomic, the only teenager in the men's field, won his first main-draw match at Roland Garros with a 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 6-3 victory over Andreas Haider-Maurer to keep on track for a third-round meeting with fourth seed Andy Murray.
On a good day for the seeds, Andreas Seppi, Marcel Granollers, Viktor Troicki and Philipp Kohlschreiber also made it through.
However, the 23rd-ranked Radek Stepanek was dumped out by Belgian lucky loser David Goffin, who, on his main draw debut at a slam, rallied to triumph 6-2 4-6 2-6 6-4 6-2.
