An elimination that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Jannik Sinner's race to the 80th Italian International stops in the eighth round.
"It's a shame to have had a bad game in Rome. Physically I think I'm very trained, unfortunately there are also days when one does not feel very well" commented the Italian number 1 after the knockout with the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo.
The number 24 seed, who won the third game out of five in the season against top-10 players, won with the score of 6-7(3) 6-2 6-2 and in the next round will play for a place in the semifinals with the Norwegian Casper Ruud, fourth seed, who in his match beat the Serbian Laslo Djere 6-1 6-3.
Nothing to do for the South Tyrolean, impressed on the pace and power by a player in shape, very solid, square. The Italian won the first set in the tie-break, before collapsing (even physically) devastated by the depth of the blows of a hammering Cerundolo as few times in his career.
Sinner struggled to hold the field, heavy from the rain, often trading in obvious difficulty, with too many errors (as many as 46) and few winners. The continuous search for solutions, implemented with little lucidity, has been worthless. For the Italian number 1 this is the first defeat of the season before the quarterfinals in a Masters 1000.
Lorenzo Musetti also stops at the eighth. In the challenge that was played at night on the Central (due to rain) the Tuscan was beaten by Stefanos Tsitsipas, who imposed a double 7-5 in an hour and 48 minutes of play. The Greek will face Croatia's Borna Coric in the quarter-finals.
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Novak Djokovic, Internazionali BNL D'Italia 16/05/2023
The march of the tournament favorite, Novak Djokovic, continues. The Serbian champion defeated the British Cameron Norrie (13), criticized for some unsporting attitude, with the score of 6-3 6-4 in an hour and a half of play, flying to the quarter-finals of the Internationals for the 17th consecutive time.
It's an incredible record: "Nole" has finished among the top eight of the tournament in each of his participations. On the red of the Foro Italico the Serbian is wonderful, he has won six editions of the tournament and is the reigning champion. In the quarter-finals he will face Denmark's Holger Rune (7), who beat Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin (6-4 5-7 6-4).
Out of Russian Andrey Rublev (6), who surrendered 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 to German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann.