The Swiss tennis player Roger Federer will face Guillermo Caas at the Rome ATP Masters Series tournament, after the Argentinean won on Monday in three sets his first match against the Italian Gianluca Nas; the tournament’s wild card. Caas managed a victory 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 and 6-2 against Naso during the first round of games. Caas who is currently ranked 30 is one of the few players in the men's professional circuit that has a favorable personal record against the world's number one; basically three victories in five games. Nevertheless, Caas will have to work hard on Monday to assure an encounter with the Swiss on the clay court in the Italian Capital. The Argentinean’s first match against Naso was a real thriller as he kept pressuring the South American; both remained partial in the first set with a tiebreak. Then in the second set Caas’ performance was better as he took advantage of a series of unforced errors made by the Italian, which led him to his victory in a game that lasted two hours and 37 minutes. After this victory, Caas was set on course to play against his best rival Roger Federer who comes from a previous loss to Rafa Nadal at the Monte Carlo Final only a week ago. The eight top players who lead the series will begin to play in the second round as all received a bye-card for the first entry. The Spaniard Rafa Nadal seeks his fourth consecutive title in Rome as he previously did in the French city of Monte Carlo. On the other hand; the Peruvian Luis Horna won in consecutive sets 6-4 and 6-1 over the French who is currently in the top ten Richard Gasquet to advance into the second round. The Frenchman who is going through a difficult time lost perspective and was stopped by Horna during this serve. In one hour the Peruvian managed to win over the French who is the only top 10 players who has not advanced past the quarterfinals in the 2008 ATP tournament circuit. ''Today I played probably my worse game of the year. After beginning losing the first set, I lost all my confidence and was really lost on the court. Nothing would have made me win here today" expressed Gasquet in a press conference. Another game was that of the Belgian Steve Darcis who will face in the second round the Australian Open champion of this year, the Serbian Novak Djokovic; Darcis won over the Croatian Ivan Ljubicic for 7-5 and 7-6 (7-5). Later in the day, the Argentinean Juan Martin del Potro faced the Scottish Andy Murray in the first round; but retired in the third set 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 allowing Murray to continue. The raising Spaniard star Nicolas Almagro won over the Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-1 and 6-3 and will be the rival in a second round encounter against the Argentinean David Nalbandian who comes from weary performance at the Barcelona Open where he was eliminated in the first rounds.
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