Roger Federer will face his bogeyman Guillermo Canas in the second round of the Rome Masters after the Argentine beat Italian wildcard Gianluca Naso 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday.
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Canas is one of the few players on tour to have a winning record against the world number one -- triumphing in three of their five clashes -- but on Monday he had to work hard to book a meeting with the Swiss.
After trading breaks midway through the first set, Naso continued to pile on the pressure and eventually bagged the first set 10-8 in the tiebreak.
The Argentine capitalised on Naso's unforced errors in the second set to get the break and then cruised home.
Federer has a bye to the second round along with Rafael Nadal, who is aiming for his fourth consecutive Rome Masters title.
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Richard Gasquet's shaky form continued when the French ninth seed was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Peruvian qualifier Luis Horna in the first round.
Gasquet, the only world top 10 player not to have reached an ATP quarter-final this year, fell apart after losing his serve in the seventh game of the first set with two consecutive double faults.
"Today I played maybe my worst match of the year," Gasquet told a news conference. "After I started losing the first set I lost all my confidence and I was really lost on court. Anyone here could have beaten me today."
Belgium's Steve Darcis will meet Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic after edging past Croat Ivan Ljubicic 7-5, 7-6.
