Rusedski romps to victory

A straight sets win for Rusedski in Milan

Greg Rusedski's recent good run of form continued on Monday night with a confident straight sets success in the first round of the Milan Indoor tournament.

The British number two got the better of Italian number one and home favourite Gianluca Pozzi 6-1 7-5 to ease through.

Rusedski was in dominant form in the opening set, showing all the skills which got him to the fourth round of the Australian Open and playing perfect indoor tennis.

But cheered on by his home crowd, the veteran Pozzi recovered in the second set and made the 27-year-old work hard.

Rusedski kept his composure before gaining the decisive break in the 11th game and then serving out for victory.

"Rusedski played too good for me today. It's really tough to face such a good indoor player in the first round", Pozzi said after the match.

The Briton will now meet Switzerland's Marc Rosset, the number eight seed or Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in the second round.

Rusedski's recent performances in the Australian Open, where he beat top seed Gustavo Kuerten in a five set thriller, have brought him up to 13th in this year's Champions race.