Bolelli Ensures A Historic Day For Italy; Hewitt Beats Ninth Seed Youzhny

© Getty ImagesSimone Bolelli is one five Italians in the second round.

Wild card Simone Bolelli ensured that it was a historic day for Italian tennis on Tuesday, when he recorded a 6-4, 6-1 victory over German lucky loser Simon Greul at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tennis tournament in Rome.

For the first time in 16 years, five homegrown players – Paolo Lorenzi, Andreas Seppi, Potito Starace, Filippo Volandri and Bolelli – have reached the second round at the Foro Italico. Adriano Panatta was the last Italian to lift the prestigious trophy in 1976 (d. Vilas).

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The 24-year-old Bolelli will next meet the player he faced on his 2006 debut, in-form Spaniard and No. 6 seed Fernando Verdasco, who captured his fifth ATP World Tour title at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell on Sunday.

Elsewhere, former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt fought past ninth-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Hewitt, who underwent right hip surgery on 29 January, converted five of seven break point opportunities for victory in two hours and 30 minutes. It was his fourth win in five meetings against Youzhny, who committed 59 unforced errors.

Youzhny, a runner-up at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam (l. to Soderling) and the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (l. to Djokovic) in February, dropped to a 15-6 season record. He remains winless on clay courts in 2010 (0-2).

Former World No. 9 Stanislas Wawrinka, who beat Marat Safin, Andy Murray, Juan Carlos Ferrero, James Blake and Andy Roddick en route to the 2008 final (l. to Djokovic), made light work of a potentially tricky first-round encounter against Jurgen Melzer of Austria with a 6-1, 6-2 win in just 57 minutes. The Swiss, a winner of the Grand Prix Hassan II title at Casablanca (d. Hanescu) earlier this month, will next challenge No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the second round.

Eighth-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic will meet Feliciano Lopez of Spain, who hit 11 aces and won 77 per cent of service points in a 6-4, 6-3 win over German Benjamin Becker in 73 minutes.