Current world No. 1 Roger Federer and former top-ranked star Andy Roddick were a pair of second-round winners Tuesday at the $3.5 million Italian Masters, a clay-court French Open tune-up.
The top-seeded and two-time Rome runner-up Federer handled gritty Argentine Guillermo Canas 6-3, 6-3 in 1 hour, 24 minutes, while a sixth-seeded Roddick doused fellow American Mardy Fish 6-1, 6-4 on Day 2 at Foro Italico. The capable Canas shocked Federer in a couple of Masters Series tournaments last season and actually headed into Tuesday with a winning record (3-2) against the 12-time Grand Slam champ. This, however, marked their first-ever meeting on clay.
Federer, who's now 10-1 on clay this year, reached finals here in 2003 and 2006. The Swiss great lost to Spanish clay-court king Rafael Nadal in a final in Monte Carlo just two weeks ago.
Both Federer and Roddick enjoyed opening-round byes at this Masters Series event. Roddick, who's making his first ATP clay-court appearance of 2008 here, has beaten his good friend Fish in their last eight encounters on tour.
Former Rome titlist Juan Carlos Ferrero was a first-round victor, as the former world No. 1 Spaniard outlasted oft-injured German Nicolas Kiefer 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4. Ferrero, who captured this event in 2001, should have his hands full with a second-seeded Nadal here on Wednesday.
Nadal is the reigning three-time Rome champion and fresh off his fourth straight Barcelona championship last week. The three-time French Open champ beat Chilean Fernando Gonzalez in last year's Rome finale and is an amazing 103-1 in his last 104 matches overall on clay.
A 12th-seeded Gonzalez barely snuck past improving Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 3-6, 7-6 (7-0), 7-6 (8-6) on Day 2. The Chilean star is fresh off his clay- court title in Munich last week.
First-round upsets came when Gilles Simon outlasted 10th-seeded fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), Fernando Verdasco leveled 11th-seeded fellow Spaniard Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-4 and 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic toppled 15th-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. Tsonga was the surprise Aussie Open runner-up earlier this year. Moya was the Rome titlist back in 2004.
In other opening-round play, 14th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo handled Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 6-1; Argentine Jose Acasuso erased Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2; Ecuadorian qualifier Nicolas Lapentti got past Italian Filippo Volandri 7-6 (8-6), 2-6, 6-2; Italian Simone Bolelli blasted Frenchman Olivier Patience 6-0, 6-3; and Croatian wild card Mario Ancic dismissed Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-4. Bolelli was last week's Munich runner-up to Gonzalez.
This week's winner will take home $558,000.
