Wimbledon: Federer happy with 'perfect' start

Roger Federer's only complaint was about the cold as he made an otherwise "perfect" start to his Wimbledon title defence by breezing past Victor Hanescu.

Beginning his quest for a record eighth title in SW19, the 31-year-old needed just one hour and eight minutes to topple the Romanian 6-3 6-2 6-0.

Federer looked classy without having to push himself too hard on Centre Court. Much tougher clashes are to come.

His second-round opponent, Ukraine's world number 116 Sergiy Stakhovsky, is unlikely to pose Federer too many problems though, and the Swiss wants to take Monday's form into that clash.

"The longer the match, the longer you spend on Centre Court - it's not a bad thing," Federer said. "That's what I was thinking today. It went by very quickly.

"But I guess you'd prefer to have it this way, walk away as a winner instead of being out there for five hours and losing in the first round.

"I thought overall I played a good match, no hiccups on the serve.

"I returned well, sometimes aggressive, sometimes with the chip the way I usually do it on the grass anyway.

"Then I was moving pretty well even though I thought it was quite slippery because it is opening Monday.

"It always feels a bit slippery. I think I handled that well.

"Just a bit of a breeze, as well. It was cold. I'm happy to get out of there early and quickly so it was a perfect day."

While Federer flew through, a well-known name bowed out.

Lukas Rosol, the man who stunned Rafael Nadal in last year's second round, could not clear the first hurdle this time around.

He went down 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 to German qualifier Julian Reister.

Another famous name of Wimbledons past is John Isner.

The American, best known for playing the longest-ever tennis match at the 2010 tournament against Nicolas Mahut, had no such trouble in round one, defeating Evgeny Donskoy 6-1 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/3).

Elsewhere, Fabio Fognini, the 30th seed, was an early casualty, although the claycourter's four-set defeat to Jurgen Melzer could hardly be classed as a big surprise.

But Queen's Club runner-up Marin Cilic (12) led a host of seeds into the second round.