Grigor Dimitrov and Venus Williams among those with a strong start at Rome Masters

The Rome Masters kicked off on Monday with Grigor Dimitrov looking strong in a first-round win over Jerzy Janowicz while Venus Williams cruised past teenaged Katerina Sniakova.

Grigor Dimitrov returns a shot to Jerzy Janowicz during his first round win at the Rome Masters on Monday. Andreas Solaro / AFP / May 11, 2015

Grigor Dimitrov opened his Rome Masters campaign with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) victory over Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz on Monday.

The Bulgarian world No 11, beaten by Rafa Nadal in the quarter-finals in Madrid last week, earned the only service break of the match to edge into the second round where he will face home favourite Fabio Fognini.

Other seeded winners included American No 16 John Isner, who beat Portugal’s Joao Sousa 7-5, 6-3 and French 12th seed Gilles Simon, a 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 winner over Jack Sock.

Big-serving South African Kevin Anderson also reached the second round, although he was stretched to the limit by Germany’s Florian Mayer, winning in a deciding set tiebreak.

World No 1 Novak Djokovic tops the draw which also includes nine-times French Open champion Nadal, Roger Federer and Madrid Masters champion Andy Murray.

In the women’s event, early losers included Australian Samantha Stosur who was beaten 6-4, 7-5 by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The Russian will face top seed and defending champion Serena Williams in the second round.

Former world No 1 Venus Williams showed that she could still make her experience count as the 34-year-old thumped Czech teenager Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-2.

Murray, meanwhile, in the midst of a clay breakthrough, decided to play after his team were seriously discussing the pros and cons of playing in Rome, after their man won trophies in Munich and Madrid in the space of seven days.

The Scot is scheduled to start in the second round against Jeremy Chardy of France on Wednesday.

Third-ranked Murray could not have asked for a better French Open preparation and will look to avoid either injury or fatigue with Roland Garros starting in 13 days.

It’s a different story completely for Nadal, who desperately needs confidence after going down in front of his home public to Murray in a Madrid final which did not even extend to 90 minutes.

Nadal insisted he feels his tennis is on the right path despite not having won a spring clay title.

“I’m already thinking in Rome, it’s an important change. You change from playing with altitude to no altitude there,” the Spaniard said.

“I’ll try to have a good week in Rome – and by a good week, that does not mean only to win. That means to do things good through the different days. Doing things well every single day, that’s a good week.”

Nadal called the event “a very complicated tournament, we have the top players there.

“But I also know if I manage to play the level I did yesterday I can be competitive against every single player.”

The 14-time grand slam champion is set to play in an 11th straight edition at the Foro Italico and has played the final nine times in 10 visits.

The seven-time champion failed to reach a final only in 2008 when he lost in the second round.

Elsewhere on Monday in the opening day of play, German Philipp Kohlschreiber, Munich runner-up to Murray a week ago, reached the second round over American Donald Young 6-4, 6-1.

In women’s play, German ninth seed Angelique Kerber defeated France’s Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-3 while Swiss Timea Bacsinszky produced an upset with her defeat of 10th seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-0.

US 15th seed Madison Keys beat namesake Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-4, while Briton Heather Watson knocked out nervous Italian Roberta Vinci 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) with the local admitting that her emotions get the better of her every time she plays Rome.

“I’ve had some very close matches in the past few weeks,” said Watson. “I actually feel very good, very comfortable on the clay ... I was just having blips with my concentration.

“Today my main focus was just to keep my concentration, play in the right way, stay aggressive. On clay, you have to stay aggressive.”

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