By Chris Oddo | Monday May 9, 2016

 

19-year-old Alexander Zverev eased past Grigor Dimitrov to set up a second-round encounter in Rome on Monday.

Photo Source: Matthew Lewis/Getty

19-year-old Alexander Zverev scored his second consecutive victory over slumping Grigor Dimitrov in Monday’s night session at the Internazionali BNL D’italia, 6-1, 6-4, to book a second-round clash with third-seeded Roger Federer.

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Making his main draw debut at Foro Italico, Zverev hit 15 winners against just eight unforced errors to claim his 17th victory over the season in 67 minutes.

Zverev improves to 7-3 on clay this season while Dimitrov drops to 4-4 on clay.

Dimitrov mounted a brief rally in the second set, breaking to draw level at four games apiece, but he was broken in the next game and Zverev promptly produced a love hold to close out the match decisively.

Dimitrov is ranked outside of the top 30 for the first time in nearly two years this week in Rome, and could drop even lower next week as a result of his loss.

In other first-round action in Rome, 10th-seeded Milos Raonic took out Italian wild card Marco Cecchinato, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, to set up a second-round encounter with Nick Kyrgios. The Australian was a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Italian wild card Salvatore Caruso.

Kyrgios and Raonic have split four meetings to date, with Kyrgios winning the last two.

Elsewhere, 19-year-old Borna Coric fell to qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4, while 14th-seeded Gael Monfils was upset by Thomaz Bellucci, 6-3, 7-6(2).

11th-seeded Richard Gasquet and 13th-seeded Dominic Thiem also advanced. Thiem won his 30th match of the season and could face Roger Federer in the third round if seeds hold.

Jack Sock (d. Pella), Ernests Gulbis (d. Karlovic), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (d. Fognini) and Joao Sousa (d. Sonego) were also winners on a busy Monday in Rome.