ATP Rome - DRAW: Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Dominic Thiem share half
A beautiful Foro Italico in Rome is the venue for the fifth Masters 1000 event of the season, gathering almost every player from the top-20 in the quest for the most prestigious title on clay outside Roland Garros! Rome became a part of the Open era back in 1969 and it stayed in the calendar ever since, with some of the biggest names of the Open era tennis on the winners list like Newcombe, Nastase, Laver, Borg, Vilas, Lendl, Wilander, Muster, Courier, Sampras, Kuerten, Ferrero, Agassi, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray. Roger Federer never won Rome title, losing in the final four times and competing in the Eternal City for the last time three years ago, never returning to clay before Madrid this week.
Roger is in the draw although we are yet to see if he is going to play, waiting for Saturday or Sunday to make a decision. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are the top seeds and also the dominant figures at this event, winning 12 of the last 14 titles and hoping to extend that streak next Sunday. Novak kicks off the campaign against Denis Shapovalov or Pablo Carreno Busta before the third round clash against Philipp Kohlschreiber, Gilles Simon, Alex de Minaur or Marco Cecchinato. They are in the same quarter with Daniil Medvedev, Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka, David Goffin and Juan Martin del Potro, which guarantees some exciting encounters right from the first round.
Last year's finalist Alexander Zverev and Kei Nishikori lead the second quarter, facing Matteo Berrettini, Lucas Pouille, Diego Schwartzman, Gael Monfils, Marin Cilic and Guido Pella, forging a wide-open quarter that should bring a lot of great matches. Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the central figures in the third quarter (if Roger opts to play, of course) and they have to battle against Fabio Fognini, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Borna Coric, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe in challenging set of encounters that will determine the semi-finalist. The defending champion Rafael Nadal seeks the ninth Rome crown and he will have to pass Dominic Thiem in the quarters to stand a chance for that, losing to the Austrian in the semi-final in Barcelona and looking for revenge if they oust Fernando Verdasco, Kyle Edmund, Roberto Bautista Agut, Karen Khachanov, Marton Fucsovics, Jeremy Chardy and Richard Gasquet.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/307LfiR
No comments