Nr 1 and 2 out

This has been a crazy first round at the BCR Open Romania : Both first seed Nicolas Almagro and second seed Filippo Volandri have been eliminated from the competition.

Spaniard Nicolas Almagro was forced to retire with a right elbow injury during his match against Simone Bolelli of Italy. Two-time Valencia champion Almagro was leading 6-4, 1-5 when he quit.

Gael Monfils (pictured) made it two career wins in a row against Filippo Volandri, the No. 2 seed and 2006 runner-up. Monfils defeated Volandri 6-3 7-6 and will play Vassalo Arguello from Argentina in the second round.

Romanian qualifier Catalin Gard lost to Mark Giquel, and Hanescu notched over Florian Mayer with a 7-6 7-6 win.

Potito Starace is now the top seed still in the competition after 3-6 7-5 6-2 with Kristof Vliegen.

This tournament has lost a lot of big players, but that makes it only more interesting. And the Romanian crowd is now more entitled than ever to hope for a Romanian player to win the title.