Tenth seed and home favourite Fabio Fognini swept aside former world number five Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Monday at the Italian Open in Rome, winning in straights sets 6-3, 6-4.
He is joined in the second round by Denis Shapovalov, who saw off the challenge of last year’s quarter-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 7-6(5).
The Canadian faces a tough test in the second round though, as next up for him is world number one Novak Djokovic.
Rafael Nadal is feeling positive despite his relative struggles so far this season.
In the women’s game,
Serena Williams opened her clay-court season with a routine 6-4 6-2 win over Swedish qualifier Rebecca Peterson in the Italian Open first round.
Williams finished with 28 winners to Peterson’s eight, and committed only two more unforced errors. Serena will face her sister Venus if she wins her match against Elise Mertens in the second round.
