From Scud to cud: Federer comes home

Roger Federer had two reasons to celebrate yesterday. There was, naturally, the business of resuming his career following his victory over Mark "Scud" Philippoussis in the Wimbledon men's singles on Sunday. This he achieved with a win over the Spaniard Marc Lopez in the first round of the Swiss Open here.

But more importantly, the Wimbledon champion is now the proud owner of a cow after Swiss Open organisers marked his grand slam success in an unorthodox fashion.

The Swiss, who pocketed £575,000 in taking the Wimbledon men's singles title on Sunday, received the unusual gift after being greeted by a standing ovation from 6,000 fans in the Roy Emerson Arena.

"It is a great idea, very funny," was Federer's reaction. "It is unbelievable to be here in my home country to celebrate winning Wimbledon."

When he finally made it on to court, Federer, who made his professional debut here five years ago, did not have things all his own way but still came through 6-3 6-7 6-3 against Lopez. He will now meet the Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard in the second round.

The defending champion Alex Corretja eased into the second round after a 6-1 6-2 thrashing of John Van Lottum. The Spanish seventh seed, who won the clay court event for the third time in five years in 2002, took just over an hour to overcome his Dutch opponent.

Corretja had not entered the Gstaad tournament because his wife was due to give birth on 4 July, but was handed a wildcard after his daughter, Aroa, arrived early.

His fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez set up a second-round meeting with the Argentinian fifth seed Juan Ignacio Chela after a 6-0 6-2 victory over Georgian Irakli Labadze.

Lars Burgsmüller, of Germany, needed three sets to defeat the Croatian Zeljko Krajan 6-2 6-7 6-1. Burgsmüller will play the fourth-seed Gaston Gaudio in the second round.

In the Swedish Open in Bastad, the Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal made an impressive start by beating Younes El Aynaoui 6-3 4-6 6-3. Nadal, who turned 17 last month, plays his fellow Spaniard Albert Portas in the second round. Portas disposed of the Dutch qualifier Rogier Wassen 6-4 6-4.

Sweden's Robin Soderling, who reached the third round at Wimbledon before losing to Tim Henman, also progressed after beating the Austrian qualifier Markus Hipfl 7-5 6-1. He now faces the defending champion Carlos Moya, who needed three sets to overcome the Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty 6-2 6-7 6-3.