Sampras’s record still firmly fixed in the sights of Federer

Twelve months ago, Federer had to fight back from two sets down in his first round tie against Alejandro Falla but he never looked troubled yesterday.

The Swiss third seed lost only two points from his own serve in the first set and then accelerated to a 7-6 (7/2) 6-4 6-2 victory over Kukushkin.

Federer will face Adrian Mannarino in the next round after the Frenchman eventually saw off Ireland’s Conor Niland in five tough sets.

“Tying Pete in any stats means you’re right up there with maybe the greatest, one of the greatest players of all times, and that’s always a nice thing,” said Federer.

“Winning Wimbledon alone without any records is amazing.

“I have just won my first match – there are six more to go. It was a good performance. I’m serving well, moving well. It’s nice to win in straight sets.”

Federer felt under less pressure at the French Open, where he reached the final, because Rafael Nadal was defending champion and Novak Djokovic arrived in Paris on a remarkable unbeaten streak.

Nadal and home favourite Andy Murray may have dominated the pre-tournament headlines, but Federer’s desire to match Sampras’s record means Wimbledon is different.

“Everybody was talking about less pressure at the French Open just because of Novak and Rafa,” said Federer.

“I can play with a bit less pressure here – but at the same time I want to do so well at Wimbledon because I’ve won the tournament six times.

“It feels like if things go well for me, I can go extremely far here.

“At the French Open I feel it’s a bit more on other opponents’ racquets – but here I feel it’s a bit more on mine.

“That’s why I’ll always play with some pressure at Wimbledon just because of the occasion and what it means to me really.”

Federer struggled to get a handle on Kukushkin’s serve in windy Centre Court conditions and the first set went to a tie-break but he was never in any danger. Once Federer had moved into the lead there was no stopping him and he wrapped up a straight-sets victory with a supreme mixture of serve-volley tennis and unstoppable groundstrokes.

“In the first round it’s a matter of playing solid and coming through. I struggled early on in the first set to get any read on his serve, even though he’s not the biggest server,” said Federer.

“The conditions were tough and the wind made it tricky to time the ball well from the baseline.

“He did well but I never really struggled on my serve. I was able to actually cruise through lots of my service games.”

Novak Djokovic barely broke sweat as he followed the rest of the ‘Big Four’ into the second round of Wimbledon with a 6-4 6-1 6-1 win over Jeremy Chardy in an hour and 20 minutes on Centre Court.

The Serbian had witnessed fellow title challengers Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray all book their places in the last 64 and knew he would need to make a statement of intent against the Frenchman – an arguably stronger opponent than any of those his rivals had faced.

The form player of 2011 rarely looked in any danger, though, riding out an early barrage of serves from the world No 52 and, as the match progressed, any point that went beyond the first two shots generally went in Djokovic’s favour.

Despite carrying some strapping on his left knee he looked in fine touch and will now face either Kevin Anderson or Illya Marchenko.

“It’s the first match in Wimbledon this year, the first official match I have had on grass so it took some time to get adjusted,” Djokovic said of his return to action.

“But all the credit to him for serving the way he did. It was really hard because he had a really high percentage of first serves. But that first break was crucial.”

Instead of 11 hours and 70-68 in the fifth set, it took John Isner only three minutes over two hours to defeat Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 7-6 (8/6) in the most eagerly-anticipated rematch this year.

After last year’s record-breaking three-day epic, it seemed inevitable the first-round repeat would fail to live up to the hype, and so it proved as Isner dominated to book a second-round date with 16th seed Nicolas Almagro.

Mahut led by a break in the third set but Isner hit back to force a second tie-break before sealing victory on his second match point on Court Three.

In an epic match on Court 17, Ireland’s Niland fought his way back from two sets to one down and appeared to be on the verge of becoming the first Irishman to win a match at Wimbledon in the Open era.

Niland had come through three rounds of qualifying to make his grand slam debut and became the first man from the Emerald Isle to reach the main draw at Wimbledon since Sean Sorensen in 1980.

But the 29-year-old’s run was ended in cruel fashion when Mannarino fought back from two breaks down in the deciding set to clinch a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (9/7) 4-6 6-4 victory.

Andy Roddick began another bid for Wimbledon glory with a 6-4 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 victory over qualifier Andreas Beck on Court One.

The big-serving American eighth seed and three-time runner-up had too much for the German left-hander, with a break in the ninth game of the opening set clearing the way for him to move a set ahead.

Roddick found life tougher in the second as Beck battled hard but edged a tight tie-break and from there it was reasonably straightforward for the finalist of 2004, 2005 and 2009, with two breaks in the third set seeing him safely through to a second-round clash with Romania’s Victor Hanescu, who beat Czech player Jaroslav Pospisil 6-4 6-3 6-2.

Germany’s Tobias Kamke set up a second-round clash with fourth seed Andy Murray by beating Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-3 7-6 (7/4) 5-7 6-1.

Gilles Simon, the 15th seed, came out on top in an all-French battle against Edouard Roger-Vasselin, winning 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6 (7/3), while former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro defeated Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-1 6-4 6-3.

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