The world’s number one tennis player, Jannik Sinner, overcame a significant test in his return after a three-month suspension, defeating Francisco Cerundolo with scores of 7-6 (2), 6-3, securing his place in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cerundolo, ranked 18th, has had an excellent performance on clay this year, with 18 victories, the most on the circuit, and was coming off reaching the semifinals at the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It should be noted that Cerundolo had already defeated Sinner in the same tournament and in the same round two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This tournament marks Sinner’s return after winning his third Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January, and so far he hasn’t conceded any sets in his three matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today I felt that I raised my level. It was a very long day. But I need this. I am happy to be back. I was out for three months, so every situation for me, I feel very fortunate to be here, very fortunate.<\/p>Jannik Sinner<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In February, Sinner reached an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency, which raised questions, as the three-month suspension allowed him not to miss any Grand Slam and to return in his home tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Rome Open is the last major preparation event before the start of the French Open on May 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinner extended his winning streak to 24 matches, counting from October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The start of the match was delayed several hours due to the rain, which turned it into a night encounter. However, the audience present at the Foro Italico stayed to support their local player and cheered him on with chants of “Ole, Ole, Ole; Sin-ner, Sin-ner” in the key moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinner held firm during the long exchanges with Cerundolo and finally found precision in his short shot at the crucial moment, during the tiebreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Sinner hit a volley winner in the second set, he gestured to the crowd to cheer louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subsequently, Sinner requested a medical timeout to treat blisters on his right foot. Despite this, he broke Cerundolo’s serve in the following game to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and secure control of the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his next match, Sinner will face the winner of the match between Casper Ruud, newly crowned champion in Madrid, or Jaume Munar, who played later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinner is looking to become the first Italian to win the Rome title since Adriano Panatta in 1976.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carlos Alcaraz Advances with Difficulty<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the other bracket of the tournament, Carlos Alcaraz had to work hard to beat Karen Khachanov with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, which secured him a match against Jack Draper, who had defeated him earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alcaraz improved his record to 5-0 in his career against Khachanov, ranked 24th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was struggling a bit physically. I didn’t feel any pain anywhere in my body. I was just tired. I had to run a lot. I was very proud of the way I fought for every ball.<\/p>Carlos Alcaraz<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Alcaraz, who won the Monte Carlo Masters in April, improved his record to 12-1 on clay this season. The four-time Grand Slam champion will face Draper in his next match, who defeated Corentin Moutet with scores of 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Alcaraz has a 3-2 lead in his head-to-head record against Draper, the British player won their most recent encounter in the semifinals of Indian Wells, California, in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other Featured Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lorenzo Musetti earned a match point against Daniil Medvedev before their match was interrupted by rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match was suspended for almost three hours before the players returned to the court, and Musetti closed out the match with a forehand winner on the first point of the resumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musetti, a newcomer to the top 10 in the ranking, ranked number 9, won with a score of 7-5, 6-4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jasmine Paolini Reaches Women’s Semifinals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In the women’s tournament, Jasmine Paolini came back to defeat Diana Shnaider with scores of 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-2, becoming the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals in Rome since her doubles partner, Sara Errani, lost the 2014 final to Serena Williams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paolini was losing 3-0 in the second set when the match was briefly stopped due to rain. Shnaider managed to hold her serve and went up 4-0 after the suspension, but then Paolini won six consecutive games to take the set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was good that it rained for five minutes. I got some advice from Sara<\/p>Jasmine Paolini<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Paolini’s opponent in the semifinals will be the winner of the match between Elina Svitolina, two-time champion in Rome, or Peyton Stearns, who played later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last Italian woman to win the Italian Open was Raffaella Reggi, who took the 1985 title in Taranto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jannik Sinner Returns with Force at the Rome Open The world’s number one tennis player, Jannik Sinner, overcame a significant test in his return after a three-month suspension, defeating Francisco Cerundolo with scores of 7-6 (2), 6-3, securing his place in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open. Cerundolo, ranked 18th, has had an excellent performance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[172,809,810,167],"class_list":{"0":"post-5917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-carlos-alcaraz","9":"tag-italian-open","10":"tag-jannik-sinner","11":"tag-tennis"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}