ROME — Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer appear back on track after early losses in Madrid last week. Serena Williams, meanwhile, is maintaining her dominance.
Top-ranked Djokovic quickly overcame an early break to cruise past Spanish qualifier Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-3 and second-seeded Federer routed Italian wild card Potito Starace 6-1, 6-2 Tuesday to reach the third round of the Italian Open.
In the women’s tournament, the top-ranked Williams brushed aside Laura Robson 6-2, 6-2 a day after the rising British player had beaten her sister, Venus Williams.
Djokovic dropped his serve to fall behind 2-1 in the opening set but broke back immediately and took control from there against his 32-year-old opponent.
The six-time Grand Slam champion didn’t appear to have any problem with his right ankle, which he twisted while representing Serbia in the Davis Cup in April then appeared to hurt again in a loss to Grigor Dimitrov at the Madrid Open last week.
Djokovic has reached the final in four of the five past years at the Foro Italico, winning the title in 2008 and 2011.
Federer has never won in Rome, with his best results being two runner-up finishes. He lost the 2003 final to Felix Mantila and in 2006 dropped a fifth-set tiebreaker to Rafael Nadal.
After a seven-week break from the tennis circuit, Federer returned to action last week and got his clay-court season off to a difficult start with a third-round loss to Kei Nishikori of Japan.
Against Starace, however, Federer never struggled, with the Foro Italico crowd’s support for the local favorite proving useless.
Williams has won her past three tournaments but her only title at this event came in 2002.
A former Wimbledon junior champion, the 39th-ranked Robson broke in the opening game of the match and tested Williams with her left-handed strokes, but the American eventually overpowered her. Robson hit several costly double faults.
Also, seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro reached the third round, beating Andrey Kuznetsov 6-3, 6-2. Ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4 while Kevin Anderson eliminated 11th-seeded Marin Cilic 6-3, 7-6 (7)
Two seeded players were upset in the first round.
Julien Benneteau of France dispatched 12th-seeded Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (2), 6-4; and Mikhail Youzhny beat 13th-seeded Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3 in a matchup of tour veterans.
In the women’s second round, Simona Halep of Romania upset fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-7 (2), 6-1, 6-2; and eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova overcame a second-set lapse to beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 0-6, 7-5.
In the opening round, former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki lost to 48th-ranked Bojana Jovanovski 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Meanwhile, Urszula Radwanska of Poland ousted 15th-seeded Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 2-6, 6-2; and 16th-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States dispatched local favorite Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-3.
