Federer flawless in winning 2014 singles debut

Roger Federer put on a command performance in his opening singles match of 2014, beating longtime opponent, Jarkko Niemimen, for the 14th time.
The victory ensured Federer reached the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Wednesday.
The New Year’s Day encounter barely took an hour as the Swiss top seed and 17-time grand slam winner beat his Finnish rival 6-4, 6-2.
Absent were any signs of the back problems which made the 32-year-old past season such a chore and left him with just one title for his efforts.
Federer, testing a new larger racquet, and a winner in his doubles debut on Tuesday, fired nine aces in victory, while breaking three times from four occasions.
The Swiss next plays Australian number one, Marinko Matosevic, for a semi-final spot during a Brisbane debut week.
Federer, who has changed up his pre-Australian open programme, said that a personal plea from former champion, Patrick Rafter, ‘patron stain’ of the Queenssland ATP-WTA event, was what convinced him to make the trip.
“I know Pat Rafter very well, he told me it’s good to play,” said Federer.
“I played against him and he was one of my favourite players when I was coming up through the tour. I always like to play the first week of the year, so this fits perfectly into my schedule.”
Nieminen later tweeted: “Tough match, had my moments in the first set. @rogerfederer was just really good today, once again.”
Second seed, Kei Nishikori, made a winning debut to 2014, beating Australian, Matthew Ebden, 6-2, 6-4.
Matosevic booked his spot opposite Federer by putting out American Sam Querrey 5-7, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.
Croatian Marin Cilic, a former top 10 player fighting to lift his current 27th ranking after serving a ban for inadvertently ingesting a banned supplement, advanced over Bulgarian hotshot, Grigor Dimitrov, 7-5, 7-5.
Cilic rained down 16 aces, while Dimitrov was limited to just eight.
In women’s play, three of four matches were decided by injuries.
Third seed, Maria Sharapova, was the first to advance as Aussie teenager, Ashleigh Barty, quit the day before their meeting with an adductor muscle strain, the result of several weeks of matches.
German fifth, Angelique Kerber, moved through in the second round over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 4-3 as the Russian retired with a thigh strain.
Swiss Stephanie Voegele advanced as Wimbledon finalist and seventh seed Sabine Lisicki could not play due to stomach illness.
Second seed Victoria Azarenka took the first step in her campaign for a possible third straight Australian Open trophy, winning her opening match of 2014 over Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour and putting the Australian under pressure with five breaks of serve.
dpa/NAN.