Federer makes smooth return

PERTH - An emotional Roger Federer made an impressive comeback to tennis Monday with an easy win over Great Britain’s Dan Evans at the Hopman Cup in Perth. The Swiss champion, who has been out of action for six months due to injury, helped his country make a clean sweep of the tie against the Brits when he cruised to victory in 61 minutes with scores of 6-3, 6-4. Teammate Belinda Bencic also beat Heather Watson before the Swiss pair triumphed in the dead mixed doubles rubber. The men’s singles was Federer’s first match after a half-year break due to knee and back injuries, which saw him slide out of the top 10 for the first time since late 2002. The 35-year-old, who entered 2017 ranked 16th - his lowest placing since 2001 - admitted he felt emotional on his return to the court but said the knee didn’t trouble him at all. “For a first match it was great, because obviously expectations were quite low,” he said. Despite plenty of practice in Dubai in recent weeks, Federer said it was important to test himself in an actual match. Playing in front of a crowd of 13,684, a record for a tennis match in Perth, Federer delighted the fans when he broke Evans in the sixth game to take control of the first set. He will face emerging German teenager Alexander Zverev on Wednesday in a much-anticipated match-up. France beats Germany After Federer gave Switzerland the lead, Bencic secured the tie with a three-set win over Watson, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2. In the Fast Four mixed doubles, Federer and Bencic made quick work of the match, winning, 4-0, 4-1. Earlier, cagey veteran Richard Gasquet led France to a 2-1 win over Germany. Gasquet beat rising star Alexander Zverev 7-5, 6-3 in their men’s singles match and then teamed with Kristina Mladenovic to win the deciding mixed doubles rubber. Germany had earlier taken the lead when Andrea Petkovic benefited from an early arrival in Australia and an unorthodox preparation to put in a quality performance against Mladenovic, winning 6-2, 6-1. Rain ruins day one of Auckland Classic In Auckland, rain disrupted the first day of the WTA Auckland Classic Monday with only two matches completed, delaying the start of top-seed Serena Williams’ campaign. Williams was forced to wait until 9:20 p.m., nearly three hours past her scheduled start time, before her first-round match against Pauline Parmentier of France and other night matches were postponed because of persistent rain. Former world top-10 Lucie Safarova cruised through her first match against fellow Czech Denisa Allertova 6-1, 6-2. In the second completed match, Japan’s Kurumi Nara comfortably beat Antonia Lottner of Germany 6-2, 6-2. Fifth seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands was 5-3 up on American Lauren Davis in their first set when rain halted play.