Seppi, Chardy, Hanescu get Rome wins

ROME, April 25 (UPI) -- Italy's Andreas Seppi, Jeremy Chardy of France and Romanian Victor Hanescu were among Sunday's first-round winners at the Italian Masters in Rome.

Seppi notched a 6-0, 6-3 victory over fellow Italian Fabio Fognini while Chardy moved past Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-4 and Hanescu edged German Michael Berrer 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 on the red clay at Foro Italico.

The Rome tourney's top seeds are world No. 1 Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray. They and four others received byes into the second round.

Nadal has won the Italian Masters four times while Federer has taken the event twice in his career. Nadal is coming off a win at the Monte Carlo Masters tournament in his last outing two weeks ago.

The Rome event serves as tuneup for the French Open, which begins May 23 in Paris.