ATP Rome: Sinner and Nishikori continue, Khachanov and Auger-Aliassime out
Jannik Sinner and Kei Nishikori have moved into the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. For the seeded players, however, the first day of the tournament did not go as desired.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit:
Sep 14, 2020, 11:36 pm
Not even seven hours after Dominic Thiem had used his third match ball in the US Open final against Alexander Zverev , the starting shot for the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome was fired. The program on the first day of the main draw in the Italian capital was quite impressive, with Felix Auger-Aliassime, Cristian Garin, Karen Khachanov and Grigor Dimitrov, four seeded players were in action.
Only Dimitrov was supposed to survive the first lap. The Bulgarian won against Gianluca Mager 7: 5 and 6: 1, Auger-Aliassime (4: 6 and 5: 7 vs. Filip Krajinovic), Garin (4: 6 and 4: 6 vs. Borna Coric) and Khachanov (3 : 6, 6: 3 and 1: 6 vs. Casper Ruud) suffered defeats.
But not only the games of the seeded players promised a lot of excitement in advance, the tennis fans could also look forward to the matches between Jannik Sinner and Benoit Paire or Kei Nishikori and Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sinner easily won 6: 2 and 6: 1 against Paire, Nishikori celebrated their first success in over a year with a 6: 4 and 7: 6 (3) victory.
With Marin Cilic (6: 7 (4), 6: 2 and 6: 4 vs. Alexander Bublik) and Hubert Hurkacz (6: 3, 3: 6 and 7: 5 vs. Dan Evans), there are also two other dangerous players the second round. On the other hand, Taylor Fritz is eliminated: The American lost to Stefano Travaglia in the last game of the day with 4: 6 and 6: 7 (4).