Roger Federer crushed his Olympic gold medal-winning doubles partner Stanislas Wawrinka to win the Australian Open tune-up event at Kooyong. Federer, one away from equalling Pete Sampras' record 14 grand slam titles, broke Wawrinka's serve three times in the first seven games to win the all-Swiss final 6-1, 6-3. He said he wants to use every chance to build momentum for the season, and put his friendship aside for 57 minutes against Wawrinka.
"New season, big opportunities for me," Federer said. "I'm chasing a lot of records." Meanwhile, David Nalbandian of Argentina overcame an inconsistent serve and a string of unforced errors to beat the Finnish left-hander Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 in the Sydney International final. Nalbandian dominated the match early before Nieminen, who beat the defending Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, staged a second-set resurgence. The Finnish player appeared to be bothered by a leg cramp late in the match when Nalbandian broke Nieminen in his last two service games.
Despite winning, Nalbandian had 56 unforced errors while Nieminen had 49. Each player had four double faults. Nalbandian is the No 10 seed at the Australian Open. Finally, the top seeded Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro defeated the American Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-4 to win the Heineken Open in Auckland. The victory was Del Potro's fifth on the ATP Tour while it left Querrey searching for his second win following his first success at Las Vegas last year. One break of serve in each set proved enough for Del Potro, who is the No 11 for the Australian Open to take the honours. *With agencies