Federer claims first clay win of the season

ESTORIL, Portugal - Roger Federer got his clay season on track as the Swiss opened his campaign at the Estoril Open Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of German Bjorn Phau.

The top seed will face off on Friday in the quarterfinals against French veteran Arnaud Clement, who defeated Alejandro Falla 6-4, 6-3 earlier on another cloudless day.

"I'm happy that I came through the first round, it was nice to win," said Federer, the 2008 champion in his first time at the venue. "Today was a matter of coming through tough situations.