Federer to meet Canas in Rome

The Associated Press

Published: May 5, 2008

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ROME: Roger Federer's first match at the Rome Masters will come against a player who's given him all sorts of trouble — Guillermo Canas.

Canas rallied past Italian wild card Gianluca Naso 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-2 Monday to set up a clay-court meeting with Federer, who had a first-round bye.

"I have nothing to lose," Canas said. "I'll try my best and even that might not be enough."

The tournament began with an upset when ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet lost to Peruvian qualifier Luis Horna 6-4, 6-1 in the first match on center court.

Steve Darcis beat Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 7-6 (5) and will next play Novak Djokovic. Mardy Fish held off Michael Llodra 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2) and will face Andy Roddick in all-American matchup.

No. 13 Juan Monaco dispatched Pablo Cuevas 6-0, 6-4 and No. 16 Andy Murray advanced when Juan Martin Del Potro retired with the Scot leading 5-7, 6-4, 1-0.

Also, Stanislas Wawrinka eliminated two-time Grand Slam winner Marat Safin 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-1.

Canas has won three of his five meetings with Federer, including two straight in Masters Series events early last year upon the Argentine's return from a 15-month doping ban. Federer routed Canas 6-0, 6-3 in the Madrid Masters in October, and they haven't played each other since.

All five of Federer's matches with Canas have came on hard courts. They have never met on clay.

Federer leads a Foro Italico field featuring the top nine players in the rankings, including three-time defending champion Rafael Nadal.

Nadal is off to another perfect start to the clay-court season, winning consecutive titles at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open the past two weeks.

"Right now my confidence is very high," Nadal said. "But it's going to be very tough. It's my first time playing three weeks in a row on clay. Last year there was a week between Barcelona and Rome."

The top eight seeded players have first-round byes in this tuneup for the French Open, which begins May 25.

In Monte Carlo, Nadal beat Federer for his first title of the season, improving his career clay-court record over his Swiss rival to 7-1.

"Federer is still the undisputed No. 1," Nadal said. "He is the toughest player for me."

Federer will play Canas on Tuesday, with Nadal facing Juan Carlos Ferrero or Nicolas Kiefer on Wednesday.

Gasquet played the 111th-ranked Horna even until surrendering a break late in the first set. The top French player then unraveled, missing 15 forehands and committing 27 unforced errors overall. The match ended under light rain.

"After losing the first set, I lost all my confidence," Gasquet said. "I played my worst match of the year."

Last year, Gasquet finished in the top 10 for the first time, won a career-high 49 matches and posted his best Grand Slam performance by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals. This year, he is the only player in the top 10 yet to reach a quarterfinal.

"I'm either way high or way low, and now I'm very low," Gasquet said. "It's really difficult on the court. I need to win some matches and have fun."

Others advancing Monday were Italians Potito Starace and Andreas Seppi, Russian qualifier Evgeny Korolev, Nicolas Mahut, Igor Andreev and Lee Hyung-taik.