Rome: The Rome Masters began with an upset when ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet was beaten by Peruvian qualifier Luis Horna 6-4,6-1 in the first match on center court.

The match was even until the 111th-ranked Horna broke Gasquet late in the first set yesterday. The top French player then unraveled, missing 15 forehands and committing 27 unforced errors overall.

The match lasted exactly one hour, and ended under light rain at the Foro Italico.

After a 90-minute rain delay, Guillermo Canas rallied past Italian wild card Gianluca Naso 6-7 (8), 6-3,6-2 and will next face top-ranked Roger Federer.

Canas has won three of his five meetings with Federer, all on hard courts. They have never met on clay.

Federer leads a field featuring the top nine players in the rankings, including three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal. 

Nadal is off to another perfect start to the clay-court season, winning back-to-back titles at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open.

The top eight seeded players have first-round byes in this tuneup for the French Open, which begins on May 25.

In other matches, Steve Darcis beat former No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic 7-5,7-6 (5) to set up a meeting with current No. 3 Novak Djokovic.

Igor Andreev defeated Lee Hyung-taik 6-4,7-5, and Radek Stepanek beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-3,3-6,6-3.

Also advancing were Potito Starace of Italy, Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev and Nicolas Mahut of France.

Last year, Gasquet finished in the top 10 for the first time, won a career-high 49 matches and posted his best Grand Slam performance by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals. This year, he is the only player in the top 10 yet to reach a quarterfinal match.

"I'm either way high or way low, and now I'm very low," Gasquet said, adding that he is not enjoying the sport right now.

"It's really difficult on the court. I need to win some matches and have fun."

 

 

Source : PTI