A fire swept through a luxury Rome hotel on Saturday, killing a Canadian couple and an American, and forcing U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick and other tennis stars to flee, police and tennis tour officials said.

Roddick helped firefighters evacuate guests from the roof of the Hotel Parco dei Principi ai Parioli, where several U.S. tour groups and tennis players were staying ahead of the Rome Open Tennis Masters next week.

"There was a lot of panic. The fire destroyed the whole of the third floor. The fourth and fifth floors are severely smoke damaged," police official Luigi Rossi said.

The Canadian couple, Paul Emile Busque, 64, and his wife Bernice Marie Busque, 61, from Lac Frontiere, died of smoke inhalation after they barricaded themselves in their en-suite bathroom to escape the flames, Rossi said.

James Lowry, 58, from Georgia, plunged to his death from a balcony as he tried to escape using tied-together pillowcases. His wife had made it safely to the ground.

Rossi said the fire had been extinguished and investigators were looking at whether a discarded cigarette or technical fault could be to blame.

Dozens of bedsheets and pillowcases flapped from blackened windows hours after the fire, the ferocity of which blew out windows on the third floor.

"I woke up at about 5 o'clock and smelt smoke and they determined there was a fire and we got out," said a hotel guest, Dudley Moorehead, from the United States.

"A lot of people tried to lower themselves out of windows. We tried to get them to stay inside because the fire department was here but a lot of people couldn't tell," he said.

At least five people suffered from smoke inhalation in the fire that started at around 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) in a room on the third floor and sent some 200 screaming and sobbing guests into the streets below.

Among the evacuated guests were several tennis players in town for the Rome Open Tennis Masters next week, including Roddick, Argentinian Mariano Zabaleta and Chilean Nicolas Massu.

An ATP spokeswoman said around 30 players were staying at the five-star hotel. None were hurt in the blaze. The guests have been evacuated to other hotels around the city.