Rome, May 05: Top seed Roger Federer advances to the second round of the Rome Masters tennis tournament with a two-set victory against Jonas Bjorkman. World number one Roger Federer eased into the second round of the Rome Masters on Tuesday (May 4), beating Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman 7-6 (7-4) 6-3. The Swiss, who finished runner-up on the clay courts of the Italian capital last year, created four break points in a tight first set. However, he could not convert any of them and had to rely on unforced errors to snatch the tie-break. He was less wasteful in the second set. A whipped crosscourt backhand pass in the sixth game gave Federer two break points and he converted the first when Bjorkman pushed a forehand into the tramlines. Federer held his own serve comfortably to preserve his perfect record against the Swede.


"I am very happy to have won this one because I was really struggling out here today. It was and the first tournament on clay. It is never, so I am really happy, I am sure," Federer said.

Filippo Volandri lifted the local crowd with a surprise first round victory against Nicolas Kiefer, the Italian beating the German 6-4 0-6 6-0.


Results of first round matches in the 2.4 million euro Rome Masters ATP tournament on Tuesday (prefix number denotes seeding): 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 Felix Mantilla (Spain) beat Robby Ginepri (U.S.) 5-7 7-5 6-0 12-Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) beat James Blake (U.S.) 2-6 6-3 6-1 14-Martin Verkerk (Netherlands) beat Todd Martin (U.S.) 7-5 3-6 6-3 Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat Nicolas Kiefer (Germany) 6-4 0-6 6-0 8-Nicolas Massu (Chile) beat Massimo Dell'Acqua (Italy) 6-7 (9-11) 7-5 6-3 Hicham Arazi (Morocco) beat Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (Spain) 6-1 6-3 Luis Horna (Peru) beat Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) 6-0 4-6 7-6 (8-6) Guillermo Canas (Argentina) beat 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) 7-6 (9-7) 6-1 Max Mirnyi (Belarus) beat Stefan Koubek (Austria) 6-2 6-4 7-Sebastien Grosjean (France) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 7-5 6-2 Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) beat Arnaud Clement (France) 6-3 2-6 7-6 (7-3) Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) beat Sargis Sargsian (Armenia) 6-2 6-2 Irakli Labadze (Georgia) beat Gaston Gaudio (Argentina) 6-2 6-3


Playing later: Marat Safin (Russia) v Stefano Pescosolido (Italy) 9-Mark Philippoussis (Australia) v Tommy Robredo (Spain) 15-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) v Andreas Seppi (Italy)


Bureau Report