The 16th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime kicked-off his Internazionali BNL d’Italia campaign against Filip Krajinovic and the 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov played against Casper Ruud. Grigor Dimitrov also played one of the opening matches when he took on Gianluca Mager.

Although Auger-Aliassime was coming in a good form from the US Open, he failed to convert that into an early victory in Rome. The young Canadian struggled against Filip Krajinovic who showed his great skill on clay a few times already this year. The Serbian triumphed 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 43 minutes to book the second-round spot.

Karen Khachanov became another casualty of the first-round in Rome. The Russian faced Casper Ruud who is also one of the players that prefer to play on the clay. The 21-years-old Norwegian also got his first ATP title on clay this year in Buenos Aires. Against Khachanov, he showed that he knows how to play on this surface and won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 after 2 hours and 14 minutes.

After failure of the two seeded players, Grigor Dimitrov held the flag for the seeded players high against Gianluca Mager. The experienced Bulgarian didn't experience any major difficulties and triumphed in only 75 minutes. Dimitrov got a 7-5, 6-1 victory and advanced to the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

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