It wasn’t an easy win for 15th seed Kevin Anderson against Florian Mayer, but it was just short of three hours and it was his match with a third set tie-breaker. 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4) at the 2015 Rome Masters Open. Anderson is making up for his first round exit in the 2015 Madrid Open to Simone Bolelli.
The South African returned to winning ways after an opening second-round exit in Estoril was followed by a first-round defeat in Madrid earlier this week (l. to Bolelli). The 28 year old, runner-up in Memphis in February (l. to Nishikori), improved to an 18-11 mark on the season.
World No. 275 Matteo Donati earned himself a second-round clash with sixth seed Tomas Berdych after claiming his first tour-level win with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Santiago Giraldo, placed 226 spots higher in the Emirates ATP Rankings.
SPOTLIGHT ON ITALY: TheInternazionali BNL d’Italia, the fifth ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season, is headlined by 17 of the world’s Top 20 players. The 56-man field is led by the quartet of Novak Djokovic,Roger Federer, Andy Murray andRafael Nadal. Djokovic and Nadal – the only former champions in the field – have shared the last 10 titles between them at the Foro Italico, while Federer and Murray are seeking success in Rome for the first time.
•   DAY 1 PREVIEW: Men’s singles play gets under way on Sunday with six main draw matches on the Order of Play. Headlining proceedings on Centrale are three of the four Italian wild cards: Matteo Donati, Federico Gaio and Luca Vanni. Kevin Anderson is the lone seed in action on the opening day. The South African goes up against Florian Mayer, who recently returned from a lengthy lay-off with a groin injury. Ernests Gulbis also opens today; he takes on Jiri Vesely.
•   DJOKOVIC’S DOMINANCE: Djokovic is set to return to competitive action for the first time since lifting the Monte-Carlo title on April 19, a victory which saw him become the first player to win the opening three ATP Masters 1000 events of the season. The Serb, who is currently on a 17-match winning streak, has been dominant at this tournament level in recent years, winning 18 of the last 40 (45%) Masters 1000 events. He has a 29-5 career record here, reaching the QFs or better every year. He won the title in 2008 (d. Wawrinka), 2011 (d. Nadal) and 2014 (d. Nadal). Three of his five losses here have come against Nadal (2007 QF; 2009, 2012 final).
•   FEDERER CHASING ELUSIVE CROWN: Rome is one of two ATP Masters 1000 titles still missing from Federer’s collection (along with Monte-Carlo). The Swiss is set to make his 15th appearance in the Italian capital (27-14) – at no other tournament has he appeared more without winning the title. He has reached the final here three times: 2003 (l. to Mantilla), 2006 (l. to Nadal) and 2013 (l. to Nadal), and last year he fell to Jeremy Chardy in his opening match.
•   MURRAY ON A ROLL: Murray is off to a career-best 8-0 start on clay, capturing his first ATP World Tour clay title in Munich (d. Kohlschreiber) and advancing to the final in Madrid (vs. Nadal). The Brit is making his 10th straight appearance in Rome (8-9 record) with his best results a SF in 2011 (l. to Djokovic in 3rd set TB) and a QF last year (l. to Nadal in 3 sets).
•   BIG FOUR DOMINATION: With Nadal and Murray in the Madrid final, after today the Big Four will have accounted for 43 of the last 47 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (since 2010 Monte-Carlo). The only exceptions came at Paris-Bercy in 2010 (Robin Soderling) and 2012 (David Ferrer) and last year in Monte-Carlo (Stan Wawrinka) and Toronto (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).
•   LOOKING UP: Nick Kyrgios is expected to rise to a career-high No. 30 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after a solid start to the clay court season. He reached his maiden ATP World Tour final in Estoril (l. to Gasquet) and the 3R in Madrid (d. Federer after saving 2 MPs in 2R; l. to Isner).
•   DOUBLES WATCH: The doubles field is again led by World No. 1 Bob andMike Bryan, who are three-time winners in Rome (2008, ‘10, ‘13). They have won a doubles record 34 ATP Masters 1000 titles and 106 overall together. India’s Leander Paes is one win from becoming the fourth active player on the ATP World Tour with 700 career match wins in doubles. The other active players with 700-more are: Daniel Nestor (970), Mike Bryan (946) and Bob Bryan (932).
DAY 1 FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS
CENTRALE
[WC] Matteo Donati (ITA)      vs         Santiago Giraldo (COL)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: First ATP World Tour meeting
[WC] Federico Gaio (ITA)      vs         Leonardo Mayer (ARG)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: First ATP World Tour meeting
[WC] Luca Vanni (ITA)         vs         [PR] Nicolas Almagro (ESP)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: First ATP World Tour meeting
GRANDSTAND
[15] Kevin Anderson (RSA)      vs         [PR] Florian Mayer (GER)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Mayer leads 1-0
2010    ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai   Hard   R64   Florian Mayer   6-2 6-2
Other Meetings:
2010    Noumea CH (New Caledonia)      Hard   SF   Florian Mayer   0-6 6-2 6-3
Jeremy Chardy (FRA)         vs         Lukas Rosol (CZE)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Series tied 1-1
2013    ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Paris   Hard   R64   Lukas Rosol   6-3 6-4
2014    ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid   Clay   R64   Jeremy Chardy   4-6 6-3 6-4
Ernests Gulbis (LAT)         vs         Jiri Vesely (CZE)
FedEx ATP Head2Head: Vesely leads 1-0
2015    Auckland (New Zealand)         Hard   R16   Jiri Vesely   6-2 3-6 6-1