An action packed day at the BNL d’Italia Masters 1000 left just two Americans standing, sent last week’s breakthrough semifinalist packing in the first round, and set the stage for the top three players to take center stage tomorrow in Rome.
Sam Querrey notched his first win of the clay court season today when South African Kevin Anderson was forced to retire one game into the second set after rolling over on his ankle. The American, who dropped to No. 25 in the rankings this week, won the first set 7-6(1). Querrey fought off seven break points in the first set to force the tiebreaker and will face No. 9 seed Nicolas Almagro from Spain in the second round.
Also in the first round, the big serve of North Carolinian John Isner was neutralized by the slow red clay and Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela. The South American won a tight first set and pulled away in the second, winning 6-4 6-1. Isner only managed two aces in the match and was largely ineffective when missing his first serve, winning only five points the entire match off his second serve. Isner’s loss combined with Andy Roddick’s defeat yesterday leave Querrey and No. 11 seed Mardy Fish as the only Americans still alive in the tournament.
The top three players in the world will all be in action Wednesday. Top-ranked Rafael Nadal will face Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi, who authored the surprise of the day by knocking off Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci. Bellucci rose to No. 22 in the rankings this week after beating No. 4 Andy Murray and No. 7 Thomas Berdych last week to reach the semifinals in Madrid, where he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic in three sets. Djokovic will put his season-long 32 match win streak on the line Wednesday against Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot. No. 3 seed Roger Federer will get his tournament started with a difficult second round match against former Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
In the featured second round match of Day 2, No. 5 Robin Soderling of Sweden outlasted Spaniard Fernando Verdasco after losing the first set and saving three match points in the second set, 2-6 7-5 6-4, to advance to the third round. Soderling jumped out to a 3-0 lead after a power outage delayed play for several minutes at the beginning of the third set. Verdasco fought all the way back to even the match before the Swede was able to close out the match with a break of serve in the tenth and final game of the set.
Talented Belgian journeyman Xavier Malisse pushed Murray to three sets in the last match of the night, but the Scotsman prevailed 6-2 2-6 6-3. Murray overcame a 50% first serve rate and spirited play by the Belgian in the second set to move into the third round in a match that last two hours and ended just before 11:30pm local time.
Almagro advanced to the second round with his first win since entering the top ten for the first time in his career two weeks ago. The Spaniard beat Italian wildcard Simone Bolelli in the first match of the day on Campo Centrale. After blowing Bolelli off the court in the first set, the Italian held a break of serve in the second, but could not hold the lead as Almagro came back to win 6-0 7-5.
In other action, Ivan Ljubicic won the first 12 points of the match against another Italian wildcard, Flavio Cipolla, en route to a 6-2 6-3 win to advance to a second round date with Fish. No. 14 seed Stanislas Wawrinka overcame some uneven play and hot-headed Italian wildcard Fabio Fognini to move into the second round where he will face yet another Italian wildcard, Filippo Volandri. Spaniard Feliciano Lopez continued his run of favorable results on clay this season, beating Michael Llodra of France in straight sets, 7-6(2) 6-1, and Marin Cilic was also the benficiary of a retirement. He led 6-4 1-0 when Ivo Karlovic was forced to quit with back pain.
Second round winners include No. 7 seed Berdych and No. 16 seed Richard Gasquet, who both won in straight sets to advance to the third round. Probably the most thankful player to be in the third round is Jarko Nieminen, who beat Sergiy Stakhovsky in a tight third set tiebreaker 6-3 1-6 7-6(6). Nieminen gained entry to the main draw after both Gael Monfils and Kei Nishikori withdrew because of illness, and has gone on to win two matches.
The Masters 1000 event in Rome is the last chance for most of the top players to round their games into form ahead of the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year, which gets underway May 22 in Paris.
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