BASEL, Switzerland (AP) — After Rafael Nadal reached the Swiss Open quarterfinals in 57 minutes with a 6-1, 6-1 win against Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, top-seeded Roger Federer crushed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-2, 6-1 in just 46 minutes to reach the second round on Wednesday.
The second-seeded Nadal, playing just his third tournament since Wimbledon due to a wrist injury, broke the qualifier’s serve five times.
The Spaniard, who struggled with appendicitis earlier this month in Shanghai, was never troubled by the 120th-ranked Herbert, who double-faulted 11 times.
Playing at the tournament for the first time in 10 years, Nadal did save two break points, including when he was serving for the match.
He next plays either Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan or 17-year-old Croatian wild card entry Borna Coric on Wednesday. Both won their first-round matches.
It was even easier for Federer, who broke Muller in the sixth game and wrapped up the first set in 25 minutes, winning 91 percent of his first-serve points.
The second set was even quicker as Federer — who has won the tournament five times — totally dominated Muller, who failed to win a single point on Federer’s serve, as the 17-time Grand Slam champion’s ninth ace took him to match point.
Federer, who improved to 5-0 against Muller in career head-to-heads, next plays Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and leads him 5-0 too.
Belgium’s David Goffin is also through to the quarters after beating Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 7-6 (0), 6-4. He next plays either fourth-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada or Donald Young of the United States.
Coric, ranked 124th, caused a big upset when he beat sixth-seeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Although the 13th-ranked Gulbis, this year’s French Open semifinalist, had nine aces, he constantly felt the pressure of Coric’s excellent return. He faced 14 break points in the match, dropping his serve three times.
Fifth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria survived a first-round scare against 17-year-old Alexander Zverev, before beating the German wild card entry 2-6. 6-4, 6-2 in a hard-fought match featuring seven breaks of serve.
He next faces Canadian Vasek Pospisil.
Earlier, Golubev won 6-3, 6-3 against Teymuraz Gabashvili of Russia.
Meanwhile, Istomin had 14 aces in a 6-1, 6-1 rout of Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz, a renowned server who managed only two aces and lost his serve five times.
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