World number one Rafael Nadal recovered from a lacklustre start against his lowly-ranked opponent at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Wednesday to advance to the third round and set up a meeting with fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.

Nadal dropped the first set on a tie-break to Paolo Lorenzo of Italy - ranked 148 in the world, before stepping up his play towards the end of the second. It seemed the match could go either way until 4-4 in the second when Nadal found his range and from then on dominated the match, taking the last 8 games to seal victory in two hours and 37 minutes.

“I think there is a difference between Madrid and Rome, different conditions and the altitude and the speed of the ball and everything is completely different," said Nadal after the match, explaining why he felt he was not on his best form.

"After losing the final there makes everything more difficult and you know, you do not have time for practise and you are a little bit more tired and you arrive a little bit more sad because you lost the final and all these facts make it difficult.”

Former world number one Roger Federer had an easier time against a more decorated opponent - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. The 3rd-seed brushed aside the challenge of his opponent in straight sets 6-4 6-2 and will now go on to face another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet in the third round.

"I always expect tough matches and as I said before the game - I knew he’s dangerous and he serves well," said Federer afterwards.

Man of the moment Novak Djokovic also won through on Wednesday with a comfortable win over Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 6-0 6-3.

If Serbian Djokovic was to equal his performance in last week's Madrid tournament where he took the title and Nadal was to lose before the semi-finals here in Rome, Djokovic would then become the new world number one.

It would be the first time in over six years that someone other than Federer or Nadal held the coveted number one spot.