Federer starts off with a double whammy

World number one and top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland returns a shot to his Spanish opponent David Ferrer during their Qatar Open tennis tournament, in Doha, January 3, 2005.

Roger Federer began the new year with a surprise by announcing a new coach, Tony Roche, and also with more of the same - a thunderous attacking performance to extend his unbeaten sequence to 18 matches.

The world number one from Switzerland overwhelmed David Ferrer, one of the sport's rising young players, in less than an hour in the Qatar Open and afterwards said it was a "relief" to have Roche's help after more than a year without a coach.

Federer hardly seemed to need any of that as he won 6-1, 6-1 against the 22-year-old Spaniard who had just finished a season in the world's top 50 for the first time and is hoping to make further progress this year.

But positively though Ferrer tried to play, he was given very little chance to display the extent of his abilities, and near the end was driven by frustration into hurling his racket violently down on the court.

Federer next plays Greg Rusedski, the former US Open finalist from Britain, who beat Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5.

Source: CRI news