Federer wins his 17th-straight match

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Roger Federer glided toward the net, pouncing on another point. He bent to hit a running, knee-high backhand, dumped the difficult volley into the net and reacted with an angry, wordless roar.

Such outbursts are rare from the world No. 1, but then he hardly ever seems to miss a shot. Federer won his 17th match in a row Saturday and began a bid for his first Nasdaq-100 Open title by beating Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-1.

"It's always hard to start a tournament," Federer said. "But I actually felt quite comfortable and quite confident going into today's match."

That's understandable, given that Federer is 43-1 since the start of the U.S. Open last August.

He has won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments but seeks a breakthrough at Key Biscayne, where his best finish was as the runner-up to Andre Agassi in 2002. The humid, 90-degree weather that sapped players Saturday is often part of the challenge in the event.

"Everywhere you touch, it's wet," Federer said. "Here you really can see who is fit and who is not fit."

In women's play, top-seeded Amelie Mauresmo overcame a slow start to beat Maria Kirilenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. The 18-year-old Kirilenko faded in the two-hour midday match and committed 16 unforced errors in the final set.

American qualifier Jeff Morrison reached the third round by upsetting No. 10-seeded Joachim Johansson 7-6 (3), 6-4. Morrison, ranked 108th, came into the tournament 0-5 in 2005.

"One of my biggest wins," said Morrison, 26. "I've struggled this year up to this point. I just needed to keep the faith, and I did."

Morrison lost just one point on his first serve, never faced a break point and hit 15 aces to nine for the 6-foot-6 Johansson, who has won two tournaments this year.

Injury-plagued Mark Philippoussis withdrew before his second-round match against No. 15 Fernando Gonzalez with a torn ligament in his left ankle. The injury occurred in the next-to-last game of his opening match Thursday.

Philippoussis was on crutches but said he expects to be back on the court in two to three weeks.

No. 4 Guillermo Coria, runner-up last year to Andy Roddick, beat Davide Sanguinetti 6-1, 6-4. American Taylor Dent, seeded 31st, reached the third round at Key Biscayne for the first time and will play Coria next.

Seeded men losing their opening matches included No. 19 Feliciano Lopez, No. 22 Nicolas Kiefer and No. 30 Paradorn Srichaphan. All seeded players had a first-round bye.

Mariano Zabaleta beat Srichaphan 7-6 (5), 6-3 and will play Federer next. Also advancing to the third round were No. 6 Tim Henman and No. 7 Gaston Gaudio.

Seeded women losing included No. 10 Nadia Petrova, No. 18 Jelena Jankovic and No. 20 Daniela Hantuchova. Anna Ivanovic beat Petrova 6-4, 7-5.

Three top Russians advanced — No. 4 Elena Dementieva, No. 5 Anastasia Myskina and No. 6 Svetlana Kuznetsova. Unseeded Kim Clijsters won her ninth match in a row, beating No. 24 Amy Frazier 6-2, 6-3.