Italian Open 2023 results: Iga Swiatek beats Donna Vekic in Rome
World number one Iga Swiatek earns her 14th successive win at the Italian Open by beating Croatia’s Donna Vekic to reach the quarter-finals.
World number one Iga Swiatek earns her 14th successive win at the Italian Open by beating Croatia’s Donna Vekic to reach the quarter-finals.
Despite an overnight break in play, Alexander Zverev expertly retained his focus to complete a third-round victory against J.J. Wolf on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
With his 6-4, 7-5 victory, the 19th-seeded German set a blockbuster fourth-round clash against Daniil Medvedev. The pair’s 15th tour-level meeting will take place later on Tuesday at Rome’s Foro Italico.
We will be there no matter what. 🔥@AlexZverev ⚔️ @DaniilMedwed@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI23 pic.twitter.com/BJFAJj3WUz
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 16, 2023
Zverev had led Wolf 6-4, 3-3 when rain interrupted their maiden tour-level meeting on Monday evening. Upon resumption, neither player forged any break point opportunities until Zverev broke the American to love in the 11th game, and the 26-year-old held firm behind serve to wrap a one-hour, 49-minute triumph.
Zverev offered only one break point in the match against the World No. 54 Wolf, and the 2017 Rome champion will hope for a repeat serving performance as he bids for his first tour-level victory against Medvedev since 2021. The third seed leads Zverev 8-6 in their ATP Head2Head rivalry, including fourth-round ATP Masters 1000 victories in Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo already this year.
Stefanos Tsitsipas joined Zverev in the fourth round by completing a 6-3, 7-6(3) triumph against Lorenzo Sonego.
The fifth-seeded Greek and home favourite Sonego had been forced off court by the rain after the first set on Monday evening. When they returned on Tuesday, the pair played out a tense second set full of extended baseline exchanges and no breaks of serve, although Tsitsipas was forced to save a set point when serving at 4-5 and again at 5-6.
It was 2022 finalist Tsitsipas who kept his cool in the tie-break to advance however, as he reeled off five points in a row from 2/3 to clinch a two-hour, seven-minute triumph.
Tsitsipas will have to beat a second Italian in the space of a day at the Foro Italico if he wants to advance to the quarter-finals. The 24-year-old’s fourth round opponent will be Lorenzo Musetti, who consolidated his overnight 3-2 lead in the deciding set against Frances Tiafoe to seal a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 third-round win in Rome.
Rome 2023
Open Gallery
Defending champion Novak Djokovic reaches his 17th Italian Open quarter-final with a tense victory over British number one Cameron Norrie.
Carlos Alcaraz’s early exit from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia has repercussions beyond the Rome ATP Masters 1000 event. It also could have a big effect on the battle for No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
The Spaniard will return to World No. 1 next Monday, but instead of departing the Foro Italico with a sizable advantage, Alcaraz may be left with only a narrow lead if Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev push on to have deep runs in the Italian capital.
Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings
| Player | Pts Entering Rome R4 | Max Pts On 22 May |
| 1) Carlos Alcaraz | 6,815 | 6,815 |
| 2) Novak Djokovic | 5,865 | 6,775 |
| 3) Daniil Medvedev | 5,420 | 6,330 |
If Djokovic and Medvedev both lose in the fourth round on Tuesday, Alcaraz will lead Djokovic by 950 points and Medvedev by 1,395 points.
But both stars can claim plenty of points on the Italian clay. Djokovic, a six-time Rome champion, can reach 6,775 points by the end of the tournament, which would bring him within 40 of Alcaraz’s 6,815.
Since both men lost in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year and will therefore drop the same number of points (360), that would set up an epic World No. 1 battle in Paris.
But do not count out Medvedev, either. The former World No. 1 has admitted to feeling more comfortable than ever in recent weeks on clay. The 27-year-old would reach 6,330 points with a title in Rome, putting him 485 points behind Alcaraz.
Medvedev reached the fourth round at Roland Garros last year, so he will drop 180 points, which would bring him within 305 points of the Spaniard in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings when play begins in Paris. With the North American summer hard-court season still to come, Medvedev would be in good position to make a charge for No. 1 in the weeks and months ahead.
If Djokovic reaches the Rome final, Medvedev cannot pass him for World No. 2 next Monday. If the Serbian does not, the World No. 3 will have an opportunity to ascend one spot. At the same time, a maiden ATP Masters 1000 title for Casper Ruud could propel the Norwegian to World No. 3 depending on Medvedev’s results.
Nothing that happens the rest of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia can stop Alcaraz from returning to World No. 1. But Djokovic and Medvedev can make the coming weeks even more interesting in that battle with a deep run in Rome.
It is also worth keeping an eye on the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, which serves as a barometre for the year-end No. 1 battle. Alcaraz is first with 3,455 points, but Medvedev (3,390 points) can take his spot with a win over Alexander Zverev or J.J. Wolf on Tuesday evening. Djokovic (2,655 points) would need to win the title to pass Alcaraz’s point total.
Hungarian Fabian Marozsan’s win against Carlos Alcaraz on Monday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia stunned the tennis world. One of the best Hungarian players in history, Balazs Taroczy, was thrilled with the result.
“It’s an incredible win and it’s an incredible tournament for Fabian,” Taroczy told ATPTour.com. “He had some tough matches and since that he’s winning match after match. Very tough matches. I saw the one against [Jiri] Lehecka. He was down 4/2 in the third-set tie-break and it was 7/4 and I heard that he did the same thing today in the second set.
“It’s an amazing achievement and I think very, very [big] of course to beat Alcaraz when everybody’s just talking that nobody can win sets anymore against him. And suddenly there is an unknown kid from Hungary killing him. That’s fantastic.”
Taroczy understands what it takes to succeed on the world’s biggest stages. He climbed to No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, both in the 1980s. The Hungarian partnered Heinz Gunthardt to the 1985 Wimbledon men’s doubles title.
Marozsan is competing in an ATP Tour main draw for the first time.
“I think the whole story is incredible already. I think for him to be in the qualifying of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament was a great achievement. And I think this shows the depth of men’s tennis,” Taroczy said. “Kids, once they get there they can show how good they are. They can make incredible things so I’m sure that it must have given him a lot of confidence that he is much better than he was until now, which was not bad.
“Still he was playing only Challenger tournaments and I don’t know where he is going to jump from now. But he’s very young and very talented, so hopefully he’s going to make great results.”
Taroczy had not seen Marozsan play before his big run in Rome. However, he follows the results of Hungarian players and saw his potential with two big Davis Cup doubles wins. Marozsan partnered Mate Valkusz past Australians John Peers and Luke Saville last year before defeating Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech this year.
“They had two incredible wins in the doubles in the Davis Cup,” Taroczy said. “I think [it] always shows if you are good for me when somebody’s good in Davis Cup and he’s doing surprise wins. [It] shows that he can play because it’s an extra pressure.”
Taroczy pointed out Marozsan was “very gutsy” in the final-set tie-break he played in the second round against 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Jiri Lehecka. The Hungarian legend called his younger countryman a “great competitor”.
One of the players Marozsan has been able to look up to and learn from is Hungarian No. 1 Marton Fucsovics, who reached World No. 31 in 2019. Taroczy explained that having a role model like Fucsovics has been important for the new generation of players from his country.
“Very, very, very important. And as you said, for a long time, it was Marton in Davis Cup and those tournaments that he was winning,” Taroczy said. “We have three very good promising younger guys: Mate Valkusz, Zsombor Piros, they [did well] in juniors. Both those two. And then Fabian Maroszan. They are all very talented, aged about 23 [Valkusz is 24. And I’m sure that their achievements and their goals are really set because they saw that Marton Fucsovics did.
“Already for I think almost 10 years he’s been around at the big tournaments and in Davis Cup, he was always [playing] very well. So it is always very important to have an idol for the younger generations. I’m sure now the other two are going to be trying much harder. Because now they really see that it’s worth [it] to try.”
The quarter-final places are up for grabs on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where a bumper schedule includes all eight fourth-round matches at the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 and some rain-delayed third-round battles held over from Monday.
Ahead in their postponed matches, fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2017 champion Alexander Zverev and home favourite Lorenzo Musetti will all need to pull double duty to advance to the quarter-finals.
The fourth-round clashes that are already set are headlined by reigning champion Novak Djokovic’s meeting with Briton Cameron Norrie, while Casper Ruud meets Laslo Djere. Italian Jannik Sinner will lead home hopes against Francisco Cerundolo.
ATPTour.com looks at some of the key matchups on Day 7 across the men’s singles draw.
Djokovic has reached at least the quarter-finals in all 16 of his previous appearances in Rome. The Serbian will aim to extend that record to 17 when he meets British lefty Norrie in the fourth round.
The reigning champion Djokovic has done what’s been required so far in Rome, defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Grigor Dimitrov to kickstart his quest for a record-extending 39th ATP Masters 1000 crown. The Serbian will look to move through the gears and find another level when he takes on Norrie in their third ATP Head2Head meeting.
Djokovic leads Norrie 2-0, but will be aware of the 27-year-old’s threat. Possessing endless amounts of stamina, the Briton can be expected to hang tough and grind away on the Italian clay as he seeks his second Masters 1000 fourth-round spot of the season. Norrie, who beat Alexandre Muller and Marton Fucsovics, is currently 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.
After a modest season by his standards, Ruud has started to show signs of his best level this week in Rome. The Norwegian, who is a two-time semi-finalist at the clay-court event, swept aside Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match before he edged Alexander Bublik in a third-set tie-break.
Next up is Djere, who leads Ruud 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series. Four years ago, Djere defeated Ruud on clay in Rio de Janeiro before he sunk the Norwegian in Auckland earlier this season. The 27-year-old Djere, who has yet to drop a set this week in Rome, will be aiming to reach the fourth round at an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time.
Home hope Sinner earned two contrasting victories to begin his bid to become the first Italian champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1976. He swept aside Thanasi Kokkinakis but was pushed to three sets in a baseline battle with Alexander Shevchenko at the Foro Italico.
The 21-year-old can expect a similar test of his groundstrokes from the 24th-seeded Cerundolo on Tuesday. The Argentine had not won a main-draw match in the Italian capital prior to this year but has fought through two three-setters to book his last-16 spot. Sinner leads 2-1 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, with all three previous meetings coming on hard courts in 2022.
Carlos Alcaraz conqueror Fabian Marozsan will look to back up his standout win against Madrid semi-finalist Borna Coric, while Andrey Rublev meets German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. Rublev holds a 12-2 record on clay this season, highlighted by his title run in Monte-Carlo. Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin, who defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round, seeks to end the debut run of seventh seed Holger Rune.
A 15th chapter of Daniil Medvedev and Zverev’s ATP Head2Head rivalry will also feature on the Tuesday schedule should the latter complete a third-round victory over J.J. Wolf. Zverev leads the American 6-4, 3-3.
Stefanos Tsitsipas leads Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 in his third-round match. The winner of that clash will play 12th seed Frances Tiafoe or home hope Lorenzo Musetti. The 21-year-old Musetti leads Tiafoe 5-7, 6-4, 2-1 with a break of serve in the deciding set as he looks to join his countryman Sinner in the fourth round.
Rome 2023
Open Gallery
Three matches in progress Monday evening at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia will be completed on Tuesday due to rain.
The clashes on court were between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Sonego, Frances Tiafoe and Lorenzo Musetti, and Alexander Zverev and J.J. Wolf.
🇬🇧 Today’s remaining matches won’t resume due to inclement weather.
We’ll get you updated on tomorrow’s order of play in the next few hours.#IBI23 | @atptour | @WTA pic.twitter.com/GyfxWERbEP
— Internazionali BNL d’Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 15, 2023
Tsitsipas led Sonego 6-3 on centre court in their third ATP Head2Head meeting. The Greek, who reached the final last year in Rome, won their first two battles.
Musetti thrilled his home crowd on Grand Stand Arena, where he took a 5-7, 6-4, 2-1 lead. The Italian leads by a break in the deciding set.
Zverev, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Foro Italico in 2017, leads Wolf 6-4, 3-3 on Pietrangeli.
The winner of each match is scheduled to play twice on Tuesday. All fourth-round matches are set to be completed Tuesday, so the three in-progress clashes are scheduled for second match on (not before 12:30 p.m. local) with the winners returning later in the day for their fourth-round match.
Are you excited for the next batch of Break Point Season 1 episodes? The next five installments of Netflix’s hit tennis series will be released in June, but some of the show’s stars reunited to recap what is out there so far.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, Paula Badosa, Matteo Berrettini, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud and Maria Sakkari gathered to discuss some of the most memorable moments from the first five episodes.
“Walking here before we even got here I said, ‘This is what we’re going to be talking about,’” Fritz said.
What was he referring to? Matteo Berrettini’s messy hotel room!
“It was actually better. It could have been worse,” Berrettini said. “There were like, ‘No we love this.’ I was like, ‘Okay if you love it, I love it.’”
The group spoke about many topics from the show, including Rafael Nadal’s intimidating pre-match warmup, when he often does a series of short sprints in front of his opponents. Break Point brought viewers behind the scenes of when he did that last year at Roland Garros.
“I knew it was going to happen and I knew he was going to pull it out or do it, but it didn’t really make a difference,” Ruud said. “I mean obviously he killed me and destroyed me, but I don’t think it was because he did those steps in the locker room… I don’t think it was because of that to put it this way. So people might think that, but I don’t think that.”
There were also deeper topics broached, including mental health. Badosa explained why she was willing to open up in front of the cameras.
“I tried to be very honest, to express myself, the fears that I had and have,” Badosa said. “We hit balls but I think it’s much more. The 90 per cent on and off court, so many things [in] this sport [are] so mental. So I just wanted to maybe normalise the situation a little bit more.”
The reunion also featured the Break Point Awards. Who is most likely to have a reality TV career? Who is most natural on camera? Who is most likely to rewatch their episode 10 times?
To learn who the players selected, watch the full Netflix Break Point reunion above.
Andy Murray is celebrating his 36th birthday Monday in Bordeaux, France, where the Scot is gearing up for this week’s star-studded ATP Challenger Tour 175 event.
Despite being the third-oldest player in the Top 50, Murray can still take down the best players in the world. The three-time major champion proved so by rolling back the years at this month’s Aix-en-Provence Challenger, where he defeated World No. 17 Tommy Paul in the final, capturing his first title at any level since 2019.
Can Murray produce another strong week en route to a Challenger 175 crown at the BNP Paribas Primrose? The path won’t be easy. The former World No. 1 could clash against three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round, should the Swiss defeat qualifier Ugo Blanchet in his opener.
An encounter between Murray and Wawrinka would be must-watch TV for the tennis world. The pair has met on the biggest stages of the sport, including in two tour-level finals (2008 Doha, 2019 Antwerp) and two Grand Slam semi-finals (Roland Garros 2016, 2017). They’ve also met at the Nitto ATP Finals, in Davis Cup, and at the Olympics. Across 22 tour-level meetings, Murray leads Wawrinka 13-9. If Murray were to meet the 24-year-old Blanchet, it would be their first meeting.
The second seed Murray is in the bottom half of the draw alongside Richard Gasquet, Ugo Humbert, Mikael Ymer, and Thanasi Kokkinakis. Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche are among the #NextGenATP Frenchmen aiming for a run on home soil.
Jan-Lennard Struff, who was a finalist at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid, is the top seed at the BNP Paribas Primrose. The World No. 28 was a semi-finalist at the Challenger 175 debut event in Phoenix, Arizona, where he fell short to eventual champion Nuno Borges. This week, the heavy-hitting German is seeded to meet Adrian Mannarino in the last four.
Fans in Bordeaux will be treated to a first-round clash between home favourite Benoit Paire and former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem. The pair has met three times before, with Thiem holding a perfect record, including a five-set victory over the Frenchman at the 2019 Australian Open. Paire arrives at the Challenger 175 off the back of a finalist finish at the Francavilla al Mare Challenger.
Turin
World No. 40 Sebastian Baez headlines the field at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo. After a disappointing early exit in Rome, the Argentine looks to find his best tennis on the Italian clay. The 22-year-old Baez has captured both of his ATP tour-level titles and all six of his Challenger Tour trophies on the red dirt.
Baez will open against a home hope, Riccardo Bonadio or 19-year-old Gabriele Piraino. The Buenos Aires native is seeded to meet countryman Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the semi-finals. Fifth seed Taro Daniel and Oscar Otte are also featured in the top half.
Second seed Daniel Elahi Galan reached the last four at the Cagliari Challenger 175 event, where he lost to eventual champion Ugo Humbert. A four-time Challenger champion, Galan will aim for his first title of the season. Juan Pablo Varillas, Yosuke Watanuki, and Aleksandar Kovacevic are the other seeded players in the bottom half of the Turin Challenger draw.
Turning up in Turin 👀🇮🇹
Preview the draw ➡️ https://t.co/sQmSWgVQ4U#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/womtEAkdkM
— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 14, 2023
All the live matches and replays can be found on the Challenger TV landing page. You can learn all you need to know about the tour on the ATP Challenger Tour Landing Page.
For App Users
To watch Challenger TV on the ATP WTA Live App, navigate to the screen you see when you open the app. On the purple navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, click the “More” button on the far right. The second option down will be “Challenger TV”, where you can select any match from any ATP Challenger Tour event that day.
To view Challenger scores, draws, schedules and more, select “Scores” on the navigation bar on the bottom of your screen. At the top there are two tabs: “ATP Tour & Hologic WTA Tour” and “ATP Challenger & WTA 125”. Select the latter and explore all the Challenger events for the week.
Chasing form, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury reached the quarter-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time this season on Monday. The second seeds clawed past Italians Andrea Pellegrino and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(1), 6-7(1), 10-7 at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Ram and Salisbury, who reached the final in Rome in 2021, saved one set point in the first set and then held their nerve in the Match Tie-break to advance after one hour and 59 minutes.
Ram and Salisbury have won three ATP Masters 1000 titles as a team and will continue their quest for a fourth against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. The Spanish-Argentine team defeated Daniel Evans and Ben Shelton 6-1, 7-6(1).
Jason Kubler and Alex de Minaur won a thriller against Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden. The Australians saved two match points to triumph 2-6, 7-6(8), 12-10.
Jamie Murray and Michael Venus advanced, defeating fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6(7), 4-6, 10-2, while Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski beat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 7-6(3), 6-2.
