The Greek edged out a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) win against Grigor Dimitrov to make it through to the next round of the competition.
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As the round of 32 of the 2022 ATP Italian Open comes to and end, fans have been witness to some outstanding tennis action. The clay court ATP 1000 competition in Rome is one of the biggest before the French Open, much like the Monte Carlo Masters and the Madrid Open. Day 5 was the final day of the round of 32 matches and while a lot of the usual suspects made it through to the next round, there were some that suffered an early exit. Ninth seed Cameron Norrie was knocked out of the competition on Wednesday by Marin Cilic. Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Grigor Dimitrov and Rafael Nadal recorded a comfortable win over John Isner. Second seed Alexander Zverev was in action as well, making short work of the 2022 Estoril Open winner Sebastian Baez.
When ninth seed Cameron Norrie won the first set of his round of 32 match against Marin Cilic, he surely would have thought that he had one foot in the next round and that would have boosted his confidence for the remainder of the tie. However, that confidence might have turned into overconfidence as Cilic came back from a set down and recorded a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory. The Croatian smashed nine aces and conceded three double faults. His win percentage on the first and second serves was 76% and 67% respectively. Cilic also converted five out of his 10 break points.
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Grigor Dimitrov and Stefanos Tsitsipas played out an absolute classic of a match in their round of 32 tie. The Greek edged out a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) win against his opponent to make it through to the next round of the competition. It was a tight affair for the most part and the stats suggest the same. Tsitsipas hit 12 aces while Dimitrov could manage four. On double faults, both players committed five. The win percentage in the first and second serves for the Bulgarian was 75% and 61% respectively while that for Tsitsipas was 73% and 66%. Both players converted two out of six available break points.
Rafael Nadal and John Isner are both veterans of tennis with years of experience, but the Spaniard made the job look quite easy against the American. Nadal won the match 6-3, 6-1 to make it through to the round of 16 of the Italian Open. Both players scored one ace and committed a couple of double faults. When it comes to the win percentage on the first and second serves, Nadal dominates with 81% and 65% respectively. Isner could only record 50% and 58%, The Spaniard also converted four out of six break points while his opponent could not even score one.
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Second seed Alexander Zverev is only just coming from a tough defeat against Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Madrid Open. However, the German seemed to be back at his best as he made short work of Argentina’s Sebastian Baez. Baez had lifted the Estoril Open crown only a few weeks prior. The score at the end of the match was 7-6 (8-6), 6-3. The first set did go to a rather tight tie-break but the German was simply unplayable in the second. Zverev smashed eight aces and committed one double fault. His win percentage on the first and second serves were 79% and 58% respectively. He also won one break point.
In other matches, Jannik Sinner beat his compatriot Fabio Fognini 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 while Stan Wawrinka beat Serbia’s Laslo Djere in a greulling match that ended 7-6 (10-8), 3-6, 6-4. David Goffin was eliminated 6-0, 7-6 (7-1) by America’s Jenson Brooksby and Diego Schwartzman suffered a shock defeat against Marcos Giron. Alex de Minaur was victorious against Tommy Paul while Karen Khachanov and Casper Ruud recorded wins in their respective matches.
