Rainy Day 1 in Rome

That pic basically sums up the first day of the Rome Master Series. Empty seats, rain, and umbrellas. Albeit the rather heavy rainstorm the tournament did get five matches out of the way. Four of those matches were first round single matches while the fifth was a very interesting doubles match featuring the currently "tennis revitalizing" rivalry of Nadal and Federer. Players that got through their first round matches include non other than tenniscast heroe Juan Carlos Ferrero and fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro as well as tennis blogger Tursunov and that tall Argentenian Jose Acasuso. Nadal teamed up with Carlos Moya and took on Federer and Wawrinka in their first doubles encounter. Here are the results from the Rome Master Series Day 1.

Singles First Round
Almagro (ESP) d. Henman (GBR) 75 61
(16) Ferrero (ESP) d. Hrbaty (SVK) 36 61 64
Tursunov (RUS) d. Bjorkman (SWE) 76 (10) 36 61
Acasuso (ARG) d. Verkerk (NED) 63 75

Doubles First Round
Moya/Nadal (ESP) d. Federer/Wawrinka (SUI) 64 76 (5)

Come back later when M gives the lowdown on the results with match analysis. For now head over to ATP Master Series TV where you can find a replay of last year's final while play is suspended due to the rain, if not make sure to catch all the great highlights from day one and some interesting interviews with players commenting about Nadal and his success.