Newly married Roger Federer marked his clay-court season debut with a 6-4 6-4 win over Andreas Seppi in Monte Carlo.
World number two sweeps aside Seppi
Roger Federer marked his clay-court season debut with a straight-sets victory over Andreas Seppi at the Monte Carlo Masters.
The second seed triumphed 6-4 6-4 against his Italy's Seppi to book a third-round date with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
Federer, playing for the first time since marrying long-time girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec, put his recent hard-court struggles behind him with a fluent and controlled display.
The US Open champion survived a break point during a lengthy fourth game of the opening set but thereafter assumed control of proceedings.
He claimed the crucial break in the ninth game to move 5-4 ahead and then served out for the first set.
After securing another break at the start of the second set, Federer remained resolute on his own delivery to close out the result.
"I thought it was pretty good," Federer told
Sky Sports. "It was just a matter of getting used to it and not making too many errors.
"I had a good stretch at the end of the first set and beginning of the second set - I thought I played really well.
"I'm happy to be through and am excited to play against Wawrinka in the next match."
Frustration
Federer's previous outing, against Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the Miami Masters at the beginning of April, ended in defeat and was notable for the usually ice-cool 27-year-old smashing his racket in frustration.
"It takes me an hour to get over those type of matches," Federer said of the Djokovic loss.
"People might think I was frustrated but I was frustrated for just one second, although it does feel good still (to break a racket), even though I've done it so many times over the years.
"That doesn't mean I'm going to start doing it more frequently, it was just a one-time thing."
On his recent nuptials, he added: "It feels good, we had a wonderful day, quite emotional at times.
"It was nice after nine years (together) to see how much we still love each other and we were ready to take it to the next level. I'm very proud to be calling Mirka my wife."
Wawrinka, the 13th seed, came from a set down to dispatch Argentina's Martin Vassallo Arguello 2-6 7-5 6-2.
