Thrashed Santoro says Federer can still do better

And when the wily Frenchman says Roger Federer is still improving, that must make depressing news for the enormous peloton vainly trying to catch him.

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Room for improvement? Federer on the way to an easy win over Santoro

'Everything looks so easy for Roger and there's no space to play against him because he moves so unbelievably well,' was Santoro's testimony after being crushed 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 in just 81 minutes on Thursday.

'It's so beautiful what he is doing. I've beaten good players recently like James Blake and Novak Djokovic but Roger looks like he is coming from somewhere else. I made four unforced errors and he hit 53 winners.'

Self-serving or not, these are the kind of figures that quickly demolished the faint hope that this contest could be less one-sided, as Santoro has made a career out of tweaking the noses of the good and the great with his guileful play.

Andy Murray apart, upsets in the early rounds of Grand Slams are a rare thing these days. This owes much to the introduction seven years ago of 32 seeds, as opposed to 16, a dubious policy which has had its intended effect of making sure the marquee names stay longer in the event.

Not that this would probably affect Federer, who has lost just six games in six sets after two rounds.

The Swiss master's ease of movement is a huge reason why he never seems to get injured like everyone else, something often overlooked when assessing his greatness.

Class above: Roger Federer celebrates his win

He has to play more singles matches than anybody due to the relentless success that has seen him reach 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals.

Between 2003 and the end of last year he totalled 435 matches — 42 more than Nikolay Davydenko, who is often reckoned to be the ATP Tour's chief workaholic. Last year, for example, the Russian played 30 tournaments compared to Federer's 16.

Like his golfing opposite number Tiger Woods, the world No 1 is sparing with his schedule but you can see why. He has not missed a Grand Slam since 1999.

Federer now plays hairy Serbian Janko Tipsarevic but, on current form, it is hard to see him getting a stiff test until the semi-finals when his scheduled opponent is another Serb, Djokovic, who creamed Italian Simone Bolelli 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Already Djokovic looks like the only one who can stop Federer, as was hinted when the tournament bade farewell to Marat Safin, the last man to beat the Swiss in a Grand Slam outside the French Open.

It was 2005 when Safin stopped him in the semi-finals here before going on to win the title and the Russian's career has been in a tailspin ever since.

He has pledged to arrest the decline this season and spent the end of the last season climbing in the Himalayas. Whatever it did for him, it was not enough to stop him losing the featured night match 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 3-6, 6-2 to the enormously popular Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Great Britain's Australian Open tale of woe continued in the serious events with Jamie Murray and his new regular doubles partner Max Mirnyi going out in the first round 7-6, 1-6, 6-3 to unseeded French pair Gilles Simon and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Since teaming up at the start of this year they have lost three out of four matches which does not augur well for next month's Davis Cup tie against Argentina when a doubles victory is surely a must to have any chance of winning the match.

'I think we actually played quite well and were unlucky in the final set but it will take a bit of time to get used to each other,' said Murray, now left to contest the mixed doubles with South African-born veteran Liezel Huber, who competes for America.

All four British entrants so far — the Murray brothers, qualifier Jamie Baker and doubles specialist James Auckland — have lost in the first round and no British women made it through what was a weak qualifying singles event.