Author: Barkha Roy
In a stunning comeback, Holger Rune pulled off a remarkable victory over six-time champion Novak Djokovic in a thrilling quarter-final match at the Rome Masters. The 20-year-old Danish player emerged triumphant with a score of 6-2, 4-6 and 6-2, securing back-to-back victories at the ATP Masters 1000 against the current world number one. Despite Djokovic’s quick recovery in the second set, following a rain delay that interrupted play for just over an hour, Rune pulled himself together and eventually won a deserved victory after two grueling hours and nineteen minutes at the Foro Italico.
Meanwhile, after a challenging day at the Foro Italico, Stefanos Tsitsipas concluded his match against Lorenzo Musetti at around 2am on Wednesday morning, securing a place in the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 7-5 triumph. At the start of Tuesday’s match in Rome, there were three Italian singles players left in the tournament. However, by the end of the day, all three had been eliminated, as Tsitsipas defeated two of them. The fifth seed had a straight sets win over Lorenzo Sonego in the afternoon (6-3, 7-6) and then overcame the 18th seed, Musetti, in a match that started close to midnight.
Borna Coric, the reigning Cincinnati champion, put an end to Hungarian Fabian Marozsan’s impressive run with a hard-fought 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. This marks the Croatian player’s second consecutive appearance in the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 tournament, following his semi-final in Madrid. Coric’s next opponent will be Tsitsipas.
Fourth seed Casper Ruud also secured a place in the semi-finals by beating 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo 7-6(5), 6-4. Ruud faced a challenging task as he had already suffered two consecutive defeats against Cerundolo, including a straight sets loss in Barcelona a few weeks ago. However, the 24-year-old Norwegian sought redemption on the clay courts of Rome and emerged victorious after a grueling two-hour and five-minute battle. Ruud’s next opponent in the semi-finals will be Rune.
In the women’s singles, Jelena Ostapenko reached a significant milestone by reaching the first semi-final of her career, securing a hard-fought 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Paula Badosa. As the 20th seed, Ostapenko now awaits the result of the quarter-final between top 10 player Iga Swiatek and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to determine her next opponent.
Meanwhile, with Beatriz Haddad Maia’s expulsion from the competition on Monday, no Brazilian is still alive in the competition.