Top-ranked Federer beaten by No. 40 Gulbis in opener at Rome Masters

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Federer loses to Gulbis at Rome Masters

ROME — His game showing weeks of rust, Roger Federer lost his opening match of the clay-court season — a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 defeat at the Rome Masters on Tuesday to 40th-ranked Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

The 16-time Grand Slam champion is confident the loss sounded an alarm with the French Open less than a month away.

“I hope I can come back from this. That’s usually what I do after a loss like this,” Federer said. “Sometimes it takes a loss to wake up and shake you up for your approach the next week. When you always win, sometimes you forget how hard it is. That’s why today I don’t get too worried about this loss.”

The top-ranked Swiss had an easy first set before a drastic drop-off. His shots became increasingly inconsistent under a light rain as the match wore on.

“My game was definitely not up to speed,” Federer said. “My serve was not working at all.”

Gulbis held on at the finish, winning on his seventh match point.

“I don’t have a word in English for it. It’s indescribable,” Gulbis said. “I couldn’t put a serve in. I was shaking. I didn’t know what to do. It was a terrible feeling.”

Federer took off several weeks after losing to Tomas Berdych in the fourth round in Key Biscayne, Fla., on March 30. He played a rare doubles match Monday, teaming with Yves Allegro in a victory.

Federer reached the semifinal in Rome last year and went on to win his first Grand Slam title on clay at the French Open a few weeks later. This year’s tournament at Roland Garros begins May 23. He will play two more tournaments — in Estoril and Madrid — before heading to Paris.

Earlier, Novak Djokovic began his bid to reach a third consecutive final at the Foro Italico with a 6-1, 6-1 win over France’s Jeremy Chardy. Lleyton Hewitt pulled out a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, a step in the Australian’s comeback from hip surgery. Victor Hanescu of Romania beat another seeded player, No. 16 Juan Monaco, 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Playing inside the tournament’s new 10,500-seat stadium, Gulbis appeared nervous at the start. Federer didn’t face a break point until the fourth game of the second set. He missed a forehand wide to end a long rally and hand Gulbis a 3-1 lead. Gulbis then broke again to go up 5-1 when Federer made several errors, including a rare overhead miss.

Federer committed 15 unforced errors to Gulbis’ eight in the second set. His final set was even worse — he missed one routine baseline shot after another.

In all, Federer committed 38 unforced errors to Gulbis’ 39 and trailed 33-20 in winners. Federer landed only 50 percent of his first serves to Gulbis’ 71 percent.

“On clay you can lose the feeling sometimes,” Federer said, referring to his serve. “At one point I tried to go three-quarters speed but that didn’t work either, so I just kept going for it and hoping that it would come back eventually, and it didn’t unfortunately.”

Gulbis double-faulted on match point twice and made errors on each of his first six chances before Federer finally hit a backhand into the net.

Gulbis also took Federer to a third set before losing in the quarterfinals in Doha in January, then won his first career title in Delray Beach, Fla., in February. He is coached by Hernan Gumy and credits the Argentine with his improved form.

“He has immense power on both sides and one of the fastest serves in the game,” Federer said. “I think he’s got a great future.”

Federer wouldn’t blame the cool and damp conditions.

“I started well and the conditions were kind of like the French Open final last year,” he said. “Actually, I wasn’t too happy that it was slow against a player that likes to end the points quickly.”

Federer still has doubles to look forward to in Rome. He and Allegro next face sixth-seeded Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Paul Hanley of Australia.

“It will give a good chance to forget today and move forward,” Federer said.

In other matches, Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Juergen Melzer of Austria 6-1, 6-2; Feliciano Lopez of Spain downed Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-4, 6-3; and Italian wild card Simone Bolelli eliminated German lucky loser Simon Greul 6-4, 6-1.