World number one Roger Federer said on Tuesday he is looking forward to exorcising some of the frustrations from Sunday's Roland Garros defeat when he starts his grass-court season at Halle's ATP tournament.

Federer, who has an unbeaten 54-match run on grass, lost in straight sets to clay-court king Rafael Nadal in Paris at the weekend.

And after a short break at his home in Zurich, he flew into Halle, west Germany, on Tuesday ahead of his first round game on Wednesday.

Having won at Wimbledon for the last five years, Federer will use Halle to get over his Roland Garros disappointment when he takes on Germany's Michael Berrer and is in no mood to relinquish his record.

"On Sunday night, I was frustrated and I wanted to leave Paris as quickly as possible and I wanted time to think things over before coming here," said the Swiss master.

"The match against Rafa (Nadal) was not exhausting for me, so that helped with my decision to come here.

"It felt funny last year to go to Wimbledon without having been in Halle first, because each time I went, I won it and then I won Wimbledon, so hopefully this will continue to be so this year."

There was good news for Germany's Tommy Haas here as he began his recovery from an injured shoulder with a 6-7 (0/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 win over Radek Stepanek from the Czech Republic in two hours 17 minutes.

"I am tired but pleased that my shoulder is still okay and feels good," said the former world number two who will play Germany's number one Philipp Kohlschreiber in the next second.

"I really wanted to win this game and I am glad I came through. I felt very nervous before the game about how the shoulder would be.

"Unfortunately I have to played tomorrow against Philipp — so I will take every match here as a bonus."

Second seed James Blake also made it safely into the second round where he will face Germany's Benjamin Becker, while defending champion Tomas Berdych is due to play Sweden's Robin Soderling for a place in the third round.

AFP