ROME, May 6: Roger Federer will face his bogeyman Guillermo Canas in the second round of the Rome Masters after the Argentine beat Italian wildcard Gianluca Naso 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday.

Canas is one of the few players on tour to have a winning record against the world No 1 — triumphing in three of their five clashes — but on Monday he had to work hard to book a meeting with the Swiss.

After trading breaks midway through the first set, Naso continued to pile on the pressure and eventually bagged the first set 10-8 in the tiebreak.

The Argentine capitalised on Naso’s unforced errors in the second set to get the break and then cruised home.

Federer has a bye to the second round along with Rafael Nadal, who is aiming for his fourth consecutive Rome Masters title.

Britain’s Andy Murray went through after Argentine qualifier Juan Martin del Potro retired in the third set of a game that was delayed until late and briefly suspended because of rain.

Murray earned himself a meeting with Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated former world No 1 Marat Safin 6-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Richard Gasquet’s shaky form continued when the French ninth seed was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Peruvian qualifier Luis Horna in the first round.

Belgium’s Steve Darcis will meet Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic after edging past Croat Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 7-6.

Argentina’s Juan Monaco, the 13th seed, beat Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-0, 6-4 and will meet Igor Andreev after the Russian defeated Korean Lee Hyung-taik 6-4, 7-5.

Monday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: 16-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Juan Martin Del Potro

(Argentina) 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 — Del Potro retired; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Marat Safin (Russia) 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-1; 13-Juan Monaco (Argentina) bt Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) 6-0, 6-4; Nicolas Almagro (Spain)

bt Flavio Cipolla (Italy) 6-1, 6-3; Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt Fabrice Santoro (France) 6-4, 6-2; Mardy Fish (US) bt Michael Llodra (France) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2); Guillermo Canas (Argentina) bt Gianluca Naso (Italy) 6-7 (8-10), 6-3, 6-2; Potito Starace (Italy) bt Marin Cilic (Croatia) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; Evgeny Korolev (Russia) bt Robin Soderling (Sweden) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4; Nicolas Mahut (France) bt Thomas Fabbiano (Italy) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5; Steve Darcis (Belgium) bt Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 7-5, 7-6 (7-5); Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Lee Hyung-taik (South Korea) 6-4, 7-5; Luis Horna (Peru) bt 9-Richard Gasquet (France) 6-4, 6-1.

MAURESMO PULLS OUT

BERLIN: Amelie Mauresmo of France pulled out of the German Open on Monday because of a rib injury.

The former world No 1 had been due to play a first-round match against compatriot Aravane Rezai on Tuesday. She was replaced in the main draw by Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.

The claycourt tournament started with a surprise on Monday when unseeded German Sabine Lisicki beat 14th seed Shahar Peer of Israel 7-5, 6-1 in the first match on the Steffi Graf Stadium court.

The top eight seeds have byes through to the second round of the $1.3 million tournament.

Justine Henin and Ana Ivanovic are the top two seeds in a strong field.

Results:

First round: 11-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Angelique Kerber (Germany) 6-0, 5-3 — Kerber retired; 13-Dinara Safina (Russia) bt Julia Goerges (Germany) 6-3, 6-4; Sybille Bammer (Austria) bt Michaella Krajicek (Netherlands) 6-1, 6-2; Angelika Bachmann (Germany) bt Ekaterina Dzehalevich (Belarus) 7-6 (9-7), 3-6, 6-3; 16-Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (7-2); Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukraine) bt Tamira Paszek (Austria) 6-4, 6-3; Chan Yung-jan (Taiwan) bt Pauline Parmentier (France) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4; 10-Agnes Szavay (Hungary) bt Milagros Sequera (Venezuela) 6-2, 3-0 — Sequera retired; Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic) bt Virginie Razzano (France) 6-4, 7-5; Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) bt Tatiana Golovin (France) 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Karin Knapp (Italy) 6-0, 6-1; Francesca Schiavone (Italy) bt Alize Cornet (France) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; 15-Alona Bondarenko (Ukraine) bt Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (11-9); Sabine Lisicki (Germany) bt 14-Shahar Peer (Israel) 7-5, 6-1.—Reuters