The Russian made too many unforced errors and Kiefer, still in the early stages of his comeback after a year out with a wrist injury, took advantage.

"It was just a bad day, that's it," Safin told reporters. "I couldn't put the ball in the court at all. It wasn't really a match.

"I'm not going to kill myself and feel bad for the next month and a half. It happened, but it's not the match that I will remember for the rest of my life, so who cares. Play terribly and that's it. Life moves on."

Former U.S. Open and Australian Open [ Images ] champion Safin, now ranked 24th, started poorly, slipping to 5-0 down and though he got one break back, Kiefer took the set.

The German, ranked 222nd but in the tournament thanks to a protected ranking, broke to lead 2-1 in the second set but Safin gave himself hope when he broke back for 3-3 and held his serve to force a tiebreak.

The Russian then played a woeful tiebreak, double-faulting to hand Kiefer victory, 7-1.

"He's a very tough guy to play against because he puts you under a lot of pressure and he's a very strong person," Kiefer said of the Russian.

"You never know with him, but today I think I played quite good tennis and was very, very smart. I served good, that was the key to the match."

Czech 10th seed Tomas Berdych beat Benjamin Becker of Germany [ Images ] 6-3, 6-4, and 11th seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia [ Images ] recovered from a dreadful start to defeat American Amer Delic 1-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Number 13 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia [ Images ] crushed Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 6-1.

Another former world number one, Carlos Moya [ Images ], the 2002 champion, enjoyed a 7-6, 7-6 win over Argentine David Nalbandian [ Images ] to set up a clash with Serb Novak Djokovic [ Images ], who won the Montreal Masters on Sunday.

Moya came from 3-0 down to win the opening set but the Spaniard let slip a 4-1 lead in the second before recovering to win a second tiebreak 7-2.

Sixteenth seed David Ferrer saw off John Isner, the American who reached the final in Washington eight days ago, 7-6 6-3, and Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela beat Briton Tim Henman [ Images ] 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Juergen Melzer of Austria, Spaniards Fernando Verdasco [ Images ] and Nicolas Almagro, Finn Jarkko Nieminen and American Sam Querrey all claimed first-round wins.