The usual suspects
Top seeds djokovic and Nadal through to the last eight
Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal reached the quarter-finals of the Italian Open along with another former winner Alexander Zverev as spectators returned to the stands for the first time in Italy.
Defending champion Djokovic needed just 70 minutes to sweep past Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday, with the Foro Italico venue filled to 25% of capacity for the first time amid the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
Nine-time champion Nadal had to save two match points against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) battle over nearly 3hr 30min.
Nadal will next play last week’s Madrid Masters winner Zverev, the sixth seed, who needed nearly three hours to see off Japan’s Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Nadal lost to Zverev, 24, in the Madrid quarter-finals last week with the German, also a former Italian Open winner, having beaten Djokovic in the 2017 final.
Djokovic and Nadal have won 14 of the last 16 Rome titles between them, playing each other in the final five times.
“The main thing today for me is recover physically,” said 34-year-old Nadal, who has fallen early in two clay court Masters tournaments in
Monte Carlo and Madrid ahead of Roland Garros.
Djokovic, a five-time Rome winner, next plays Monte Carlo champion Stefano Tsitsipas who ended the run of home hope Matteo Berrettini 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 in one hour and 36 minutes.
It will be a rematch of last year’s French Open semi-final which the Serbian won.
After losing his opening service game, Djokovic powered back with five breaks of serve to seal the win on his sixth match point.
Spaniard Nadal will be making his 16th last-eight appearance in Rome. It will also be his 97th ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final.
Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego kept home hopes alive, ousting fourth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and next meets Russian Andrey Rublev.
Sonego, ranked 33rd, won through 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-5) in a match which lasted over three hours 24min.
In the women’s tournament, world number one Ashleigh Barty set up a clash with “extremely dangerous” US teenager Coco Gauff for a place in the semi-final.
The top-seeded Australian won 6-3, 6-3 against Russian Veronika Kudermetova after 17-year-old Gauff earlier ousted Madrid Open winner Aryna Sabalenka.
“Coco has shown that she loves to bring her best tennis against the players that challenge her the most,” said Barty.
Gauff, ranked 35th, reached her fourth quarter-final of the year with a 7-5, 6-3 win over world number four Sabalenka.
Fifth seed Elina Svitolina eased past former French Open and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza 6-4, 6-2 and next meets Poland’s Iga Swiatek, the 15th seed.
Six of the WTA’s top 10 players have already exited the Foro Italico, including second seed Naomi Osaka, four-time Rome winner Serena Williams, Sofia Kenin and Petra Kvitova.
Defending champion Simona Halep, the third seed, was forced to pull out with a calf injury in her second-round match. — AFP