Roger Federer made a victorious start to the grasscourt tennis season with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in the first round of the ATP event here Tuesday. The top-seeded Swiss superstar, five times a champion here, prevailed in 1hr 03min to set up a second-round match with either Colombia's Alejandro Falla or Israeli qualifier Noam Okun. Elsewhere, Russian second seed Nikolay Davydenko beat Germany's Simon Greul 7-6 (7-1), 6-0, but Davydenko's third-seeded compatriot Mikhail Youzhny fell 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to German Nicolas Kiefer. Austrian sixth seed Jurgen Melzer overcame the loss of the first set against Russia's Alexandre Kudryavtsev to win 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber kept on course for a quarterfinal meeting with Federer by edging Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (10-12), 6-4. Next up for Kohlschreiber is Swiss Marco Chiudinelli, who defeated lucky loser Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Roddick, Murray move up Andy Roddick began the chase for his fifth title at Queen's Club with a clinical 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Russian Igor Kunitsyn Tuesday, joining defending champion Andy Murray in the third round. Murray overcame strong resistance from Spain's Ivan Navarro in the first set, fighting off two set points before taking control of the match in the second set to win 7-6 (8), 6-3. Sixth seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils was upset by Germany's Rainer Schuettler, losing 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-2. Marcel Granollers of Spain outlasted Serbian 10th seed Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and Australia's Bernard Tomic defeated 15th seed Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. There were wins for 11th seed Richard Gasquet of France, who beat American Rajeev Ram 6-3, 7-5, and Colombian 13th seed Santiago Giraldo, who defeated Evgeny Korolev of Kazahstan 7-6 (6), 4-6, 6-3. Bogdanovic out of guest list After eight fleeting appearances at Wimbledon, British No. 2 Alex Bogdanovic has paid the price for failure and has been left off the guest list for this year's event by the All England Club. Wimbledon's wildcard committee finally ran out of patience Tuesday with Bogdanovic, who at 166th in the world is ranked way behind British No. 1 and world No. 4 Andy Murray. Wozniak advances Aleksandra Wozniak and Vania King advanced to the second round of the Aegon Classic on Tuesday, but there was no such luck for Maria Sharapova as her match was postponed due to rain. Wozniak, the ninth-seeded Canadian, did well to quell the serve-and-volley threat from Australia's Alicia Molik, winning 7-5, 6-1. King, an American Fed Cup doubles player, put her volleying skills to good use on a soft surface with an easy 6-4, 6-0 victory over Kirsten Flipkens, the former Wimbledon and US Open junior champion from Belgium. The only other match to be completed saw Japan's Ayumi Morita increase her chances of regaining a top 100 place with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over Maria Elena Camerin of Italy. Sharapova's match with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States will now be played Wednesday, after the schedule was hit by a four-hour rain delay. Also postponed was an intriguing match between Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer, winner of the WTA Tour's most improved player award, and Laura Robson, a 16-year-old Briton who has just qualified for a WTA Tour main draw for the first time.
