World number-one tennis player Roger Federer of Switzerland and number-three Andy Roddick cruised through their opening matches at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells, California.
In the blazing sun Sunday, last year's Wimbledon winner and this year's Australian Open champion, Federer, began play with a methodical 6-1, 6-1 victory over Romania's Andrei Pavel. With the win, Federer extends his 2004 match record to 17-1. Both he and Roddick had byes in the first round, so both are through to the third round of this event.
Roddick, the reigning U.S. Open champion, downed fellow American Jan-Michael Gambill, 7-6, 6-2, hitting 21 aces as afternoon temperatures reached 38 degrees.
Russia's Marat Safin, who made it to January's Australian Open final, is a wild-card entry and seeded 30th. He beat Czech qualifier Jan Hernych, 6-4, 7-6.
Roddick and Safin meet Monday in third round action. Safin is 2-0 against Roddick, including a five-set thriller in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Highlighting other matches, fourth seed Guillermo Coria of Argentina outplayed Armenia's Sargis Sargsian, 6-3, 6-4. Thirteenth seed Sebastien Grosjean of France defeated Davide Sanguinetti of Italy, 6-2, 6-2.
On the women's side, third seed American Lindsay Davenport beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-0, 6-3 in a third-round match. Twentieth seed Meghann Shaughnessy, also of the United States, defeated Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico, 6-4, 6-4.