Federer, Blake advance in Rome

May 9, 2007, 0:47 GMT

Rome, Italy - Top-seeded Swiss Roger Federer was an easy second-round winner, while ninth-seeded American James Blake highlighted Tuesday's opening-round victors at the clay-court Italian Masters.

The world No. 1 Federer drove past dangerous Spanish clay-courter Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4 at beautiful Foro Italico. Federer was last year's Rome runner-up to powerful Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who's seeded second here this week and is the two-time defending champ.

Federer, who also reached the final here in 2003, was joined in the third round by Argentine slugger Jose Acasuso, who upended eighth-seeded Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-3 at this French Open tune-up.

Blake got past Frenchman Gael Monfils 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, while a first-round upset came when Czech Radek Stepanek stopped injured 11th-seeded German Tommy Haas 6-3, 3-2, as Haas retired due to a shoulder problem. Haas was the runner- up here in 2002.

Another opening-round upset came when Russian Igor Andreev erased 14th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-4, 6-1.

Three other seeds reached the second round, as No. 12 Czech Tomas Berdych topped Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 7-5, No. 13 Frenchman Richard Gasquet grounded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-1, 7-5 and No. 15 Russian Mikhail Youzhny held off Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-1, 3-6, 6-2. Gasquet was last week's runner-up in Estoril, while Youzhny reached last week's finale in Munich.

In other opening-round action, former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio bested American Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-4, two-time Grand Slam titlist Marat Safin fought back to beat American qualifier Amer Delic 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and 2006 Aussie Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus drove out former Roland Garros titlist Carlos Moya 6-2, 6-3. The Spanish Moya titled in Rome in 2004. The Argentine Gaudio is rewarded with a second-round match against third- seeded American Andy Roddick, while Safin will encounter his fourth-seeded fellow Russian Nikolay Davydenko.

Additional first-round wins came for Italian wild card Filippo Volandri, Spanish qualifier Albert Montanes, Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela, Belgian Olivier Rochus and Chilean qualifier Nicolas Massu, who topped Italian wild card Simone Bolelli 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) in Tuesday's nightcap to set-up a second- rounder with Blake.

The amazing Nadal will put his Open Era-record 72-match clay-court winning streak on the line here Wednesday against Italian crowd favorite Daniele Bracciali.

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