The four-time Rome champion Serena Williams has won the first match on clay outside Roland Garros since Rome 2016, ousting Rebecca Peterson 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 15 minutes to kick off title chase. This is only the fourth WTA tournament of the season for world no. 11, losing to Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-final of the Australian Open and retiring against Garbine Muguruza at Indian Wells before withdrawing in Miami. Her last match came against Peterson and she managed to beat the Swede again today, firing ten aces and dropping 13 points in nine service games. Peterson broke her once but that wasn't enough for a more favorable result, spraying too many errors and suffering four breaks from ten chances offered to Serena. The 23-time Grand Slam champion tamed her shots nicely, moving around the court well and reducing the number of unforced errors, one of the key elements in her win today. The Swede fended off a few break points in the early games and broke Serena for a 3-1 lead after a loose forehand from the American, staying ahead only for a couple of minutes before Williams broke back in game five with a forehand return winner. Serving at 3-3, Rebecca got broken again when her forehand landed long and Serena closed the opener with a serve at 15 in game ten for a 6-4 after 38 minutes. Williams played even better in set number two, securing a break in game three after a backhand mistake from Peterson and moving 5-2 up after a fantastic point and a crosscourt forehand winner. Serving for the triumph in the next game, Serena repelled two break points and sealed the deal after yet another forehand error from the Swede, booking the second round clash against her sister Venus or Elise Mertens.<doc-sep>Djokovic with French Open market support Novak Djokovic lifted the Madrid trophy yesterday evening with a relatively routine victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas, winning in straight sets and without facing a single break point. Coupled with Rafa Nadal's elimination at the hands of Tsitsipas in the previous round, has seen market support for Djokovic ahead of the French Open. He stands now at 3.309/4 in from around 4.407/2 for the second Grand Slam of 2019, with Nadal still market favourite, but drifting to 3.002/1 at the time of writing. First round continues in Rome on Monday However, prior to Roland Garros, the big names still have to negotiate the Rome Masters with this being the last event for most to get some competitive court action in advance of Paris, which begins in a fortnight. Conditions here are likely to be slower than that in Madrid - all clay courts on the main tour tend to be - and look a touch above medium-paced for the surface. Today's action sees 11 first-round clashes, following the five which began round one yesterday morning and as is often in the case for the bigger Masters tournaments, there's some decent-looking match-ups even at this early stage. Coric with advantage over Auger-Aliassime Opening proceedings at 10am UK time is Borna Coric and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and I'm surprised to see Auger-Aliassime chalked up as the 1.9720/21 favourite. Both players have very high potential and given Auger-Aliassime's age, he could quite conceivably have massive future upside, but today, I'm more concerned with the here and now. Both this season and 12 month clay data show Coric to have better numbers than his Canadian rival, so considering him as an underdog looks pretty mandatory. He's coming off the back of an opening round defeat in Madrid, but closer examination of that loss against Lucas Pouille gives us more confidence - he was 1/13 on return break points against the Frenchman (Pouille was 3/6) and therefore it's reasonable to consider this a negative variance defeat. Coric as a marginal underdog is today's recommendation. Question marks over Gasquet in advance of Chardy clash Moving through the card, several of the later matches on the schedule look difficult to price up. Injury-hit Richard Gasquet would normally be a decent prospect at 2.305/4 against countryman Jeremy Chardy - a player who he's beaten regularly in the past - but these days it's tough to know where the Frenchman's game is at. Anything possible with Tsonga v Fognini This is also the case for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, taking on Fabio Fognini. Monte Carlo champion Fognini is currently 1.454/9 on the Exchange, which in normal circumstances would look rather short. However, the market is clearly defensive on Tsonga and with fairly good reason. The veteran retired in Monte Carlo a month ago against Taylor Fritz, when a set and break down, and we've only seen him in action in one event since then, where he played the Bordeaux challenger. After a solid win against Viktor Troicki in his opener, he struggled. A fairly tight win priced at around 1.101/10 against the extremely limited Hugo Nys was far from a vote of confidence, and then he was beaten in straightforward fashion when starting at around 1.162/13 by Filip Horansky. It's impossible to know Tsonga's condition in advance of this round and against an opponent capable of meltdown himself, this is probably a match best left alone. Ramos capable of competing against Monfils The final match I want to discuss today is Albert Ramos against Gael Monfils, with Monfils a heavy 1.374/11 market favourite. I think Ramos could keep this closer than the market suspects - he had a solid win over Jaume Munar in qualifiers and does possess a decent longer-term record on his favoured surface, although he's struggled in the last year or so. However, in the last 18 months, Monfils hasn't impressed on the dirt either, running at around a 100% combined serve/return points won percentage. Against a player already acclimatised to the slower conditions here, the market is perhaps seduced by Monfils' reputation as opposed to anything that he's achieved of note on the surface recently. *** Follow Dan on Twitter @TennisRatings<doc-sep>Through a video shared on his social media channels Roger Federer said he will play the Rome Open that takes place next week. The Swiss will make his first appearance in the Italian event since 2016, when he lost to Dominic Thiem in the third round. At the time Federer was dealing with a back injury and he would then end his season in July after his semifinal match at Wimbledon against Milos Raonic. "Hello everybody, just finished speaking with the team and happy to say I am coming to Rome. Can't wait, so exciting, it's been too long. See you there. Bye bye", said Federer. The 20-time Grand Slam champion lost four finals in the Foro Italico. In 2003 he was beaten by Felix Mantilla in the third set tie-break. In 2006 he lost an epic five-hour final against Rafael Nadal in five sets, while in 2013 the Mallorcan dominated him 6-1 6-3. In 2015 Novak Djokovic defeated Federer in straights. Federer will open his run against Frances Tiafoe or Joao Sousa, then would meet Borna Coric in the third round and Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarter-finals. In the semis he would meet Nadal. Federer will play his first match on Wednesday in the day or night session, announced the organizers. The Basel native had initially planned to just play in Madrid but he changed idea following his loss to Dominic Thiem on Friday. Federer is in Switzerland but he will soon fly to Italy.<doc-sep>When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Sign up forfor news on the biggest players and tournaments As the top two seeds in the tournament, Nadal and Novak Djokovic were placed in opposite halves. But Federer has the unfortunate pleasure of potentially clashing with the King of Clay in the semi-finals. However, that is only if the Swiss star opts to compete in Rome. When Federer revealed his plans for the clay season, he only announced he would take part in the Madrid Open ahead of the French Open.<doc-sep>
A beautiful Foro Italico in Rome is the venue for the fifth Masters 1000 event of the season, gathering almost every player from the top-20 in the quest for the most prestigious title on clay outside Roland Garros! Rome became a part of the Open era back in 1969 and it stayed in the calendar ever since, with some of the biggest names of the Open era tennis on the winners list like Newcombe, Nastase, Laver, Borg, Vilas, Lendl, Wilander, Muster, Courier, Sampras, Kuerten, Ferrero, Agassi, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray. Roger Federer never won Rome title, losing in the final four times and competing in the Eternal City for the last time three years ago, never returning to clay before Madrid this week. Roger is in the draw although we are yet to see if he is going to play, waiting for Saturday or Sunday to make a decision. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are the top seeds and also the dominant figures at this event, winning 12 of the last 14 titles and hoping to extend that streak next Sunday. Novak kicks off the campaign against Denis Shapovalov or Pablo Carreno Busta before the third round clash against Philipp Kohlschreiber, Gilles Simon, Alex de Minaur or Marco Cecchinato. They are in the same quarter with Daniil Medvedev, Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, David Goffin and Juan Martin del Potro, which guarantees some exciting encounters right from the first round. Last year's finalist Alexander Zverev and Kei Nishikori lead the second quarter, facing Matteo Berrettini, Lucas Pouille, Diego Schwartzman, Gael Monfils, Marin Cilic and Guido Pella, forging a wide-open quarter that should bring a lot of great matches. Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the central figures in the third quarter (if Roger opts to play, of course) and they have to battle against Fabio Fognini, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Borna Coric, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe in challenging set of encounters that will determine the semi-finalist. The defending champion Rafael Nadal seeks the ninth Rome crown and he will have to pass Dominic Thiem in the quarters to stand a chance for that, losing to the Austrian in the semi-final in Barcelona and looking for revenge if they oust Fernando Verdasco, Kyle Edmund, Roberto Bautista Agut, Karen Khachanov, Marton Fucsovics, Jeremy Chardy and Richard Gasquet.