Nadal and Federer ease into third round

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer both eased into the third round of the 2009 Rome Masters on Wednesday.

Rafael Nadal reached the third round of the tournament by seeing off home favourite Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-2.

Despite a promising start that saw Seppi break Nadal in the first game of the first set, the Italian proved to be no match for the world number one, who broke back immediately and then proceeded to blast his opponent off the court.

Roger Federer likewise had little trouble eliminating Ivo Karlovic from the 2009 Rome Masters, breaking his opponent early in each set and closing out the match 6-4, 6-4 in under an hour.

“I got off to a good start in both sets, which is always good, kind of comforting against Ivo,” Federer told Sky Sports. “He found his groove later on, on his serve but I already had the break in the second, which is perfect.

“It was just important to be really solid on my serve. I had two close service games in the beginning. From then on, I was pretty much cruising.”

Other players to win on Wednesday included Federer’s compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka, Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Tommy Robredo as well as Marin Cilic and Fernando Gonzalez.

Two top seeded players suffered upsets as Nikolay Davydenko lost to Jurgen Melzer 7-5 7-6 (7-5) and Richard Gasquet beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.