ROME, May 2: American pair Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi advanced to the second round of the Rome Masters on Monday after comfortable opening day victories. Top seed Roddick defeated Britain’s Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-2, while sixth seed Agassi survived a tough first set before sealing a 7-5, 6-2 win against Italian qualifier Alessio Di Mauro

Roddick, a losing finalist at Wimbledon last year, will play Albert Costa in round two after the vastly experienced Spaniard beat his compatiot Albert Montanes. Agassi will meet either French teenager Richard Gasquet - who ended world number one Roger Federer’s 25-match winning run in Monte Carlo last month - or Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan.

Results (first round): Tim Henman (Britain) bt Gustavo Kuerten (Brazil) 6-3 6-3; Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) bt Ricardo Mello (Brazil) 6-4 6-3; Sebastien Grosjean (France) bt Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark) 6-3 6-2; Richard Gasquet (France) bt Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) 6-0 6-2; Andre Agassi (United States) bt Alessio Di Mauro (Italy) 7-5 6-2; Victor Hanescu (Romania) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 6-3 3-6 6-3; Juan Monaco (Argentina) bt Robin Soederling (Sweden) 6-3 6-2; Nicolas Almagro (Spain) bt Igor Andreev (Russia) 3-6 6-4 6-1; Andy Roddick (United States) bt Greg Rusedski (Britain) 6-4 6-; Albert Costa (Spain) bt Albert Montanes (Spain) 6-4 6-4; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 6-1 6-4; Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 6-3 7-5

Pierce advances

BERLIN: Former French Open champion Mary Pierce comfortably beat Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze 6-4 6-3 to reach the second round of the German Open on Monday.