14th seed Gael Monfils was the only seed to crash out on the men’s side at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome on Monday as his compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga announced his withdrawal from the tournament. The 31-year-old had stretched his adductor during training and could not risk aggravating it further with the French Open less than two weeks away.
Monfils, who reached the Monte Carlo Masters final this year, was bundled out by the experienced claycourter Thomaz Bellucci, who beat him 6-3, 7-6(2).
Other three seeds in action progressed into the second round. 11th seed Richard Gasquet had the easiest task and dropped just three games to defeat his countryman Julien Benneteau, 6-3, 6-0. 10th seed Milos Raonic and 13th seed Dominic Thiem both needed three sets for their respective wins.
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While Raonic edged past 119th ranked Italian wildcard Marco Cecchinato 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, Thiem prevailed over Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. This was the 30th victory of the season for the latter.
Zverev beats Dimitrov
19-year-old rising star Alexander Zverev gave another example of his immense talent as he knocked out former semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-4.
Madrid quarter-finalist Nick Kyrgios continues his fine form and he took just one hour for the 6-1,6-2 triumph over the 251st ranked local hope Salvatore Caruso. But another youngster did not have such luck as 19-year-old Borna Coric slumped to a 6(5)-7, 7-5, 4-6 defeat to qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin.
There were contrasting fortunes for the top Italian players with Andreas Seppi defeating Vasek Pospisil but Fabio Fognini bowing out to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. Qualifier Ernests Gulbis was a three-set winner over Ivo Karlovic.
WTA – Daria Kasatkina upsets Karolina Pliskova
One of the brightest young stars in the WTA – Daria Kasatkina – impressed once again with her confident 6-4, 6-4 victory over 16th seed Karolina Pliskova. There were two other seeds who joined the Czech on the sidelines. Italian No. 2 and 14th seed Sara Errani was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 0-6 by qualifier Heather Watson.
Former four-time French Open champion Justine Henin’s protégé Elina Svitolina, seeded 15th, too left the Italian capital after a 1-6, 6-4, 1-6 defeat to Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig.
The winning seeds included 10th seed Lucie Safarova, 12th seed Venus Williams and 13th seed Ana Ivanovic. All of them won their matches in straight sets.
Venus, Serena out of doubles
The comeback of the formidable women’s doubles pair of Venus and Serena Williams ended in a whimper as the two-time Olympic champions lost 1-6, 5-7 to the all-Slovenian team of Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik.
Venus Williams and Father Richard recall one match that 7-time Grand Slam champion "should have won"
