 Nadal and Federer were seeded to meet in another final in Hamburg |
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have withdrawn from this week's Hamburg Masters because of fatigue. The world's top two players clashed for over five hours in the Rome Masters final on Sunday, with Nadal coming out on top in the fifth-set tie-break.
Federer and Nadal also met in the final of the preceding Master Series event in Monte Carlo last month.
Nadal has won a record-equalling 53 matches on clay and will now wait until the French Open to go for number 54.
Marat Safin was an early casualty as play got under way in Hamburg, the Russian going down 5-7 6-0 6-4 Brazilian Flavio Saretta.
Tenth seed Guillermo Coria's poor run of form continued with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 loss to Serbia and Montenegro's Novak Djokovic - the Argentine's third loss in four matches.
Elsewhere, fifth seed James Blake beat Carlos Moya 6-3 3-6 7-5 and eighth seed Tommy Robredo defeated Jiri Novak 6-3 6-2.
MMIX
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