Djokovic, Federer, Nadal through, Thiem out of Rome Open
Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer reached the third round of the Rome Open yesterday with straight set victories, but they had to play a second match in the day because of the two-day delay caused by rain in Rome.
Djokovic defeated Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, 6/1, 6/3 and will face Germany’s Phillip Kohlschreiber in the third round. Nadal won nine consecutive games in claiming the first set 6-0 and leading 3-0 in the second against Jeremy Chardy, who registered on the score board in the fourth game.
Nadal continued the onslaught by holding serve for a 4-1 lead. Chardy took the first two points in the sixth game, but faced a break point at 30-40 from which he did not recover. Nadal dropped only one point on his serve to win the set 6-1.
In the third round, Nadal will play his second match of the day against Nikoloz Basilashvilli of Georgia.
Federer was all business as he secured a break in each set to defeat Portugal’s Jaoa Souza 6/4, 6/3. It was their second career meeting since the 2014 Halle Grass-courts event that Federer won6/7, 6/4; 6/2. In his second match of the day, Federer lost the first set to Croatia’s Borna Coric, 6-2 but took the second set 6/4. In the third set tiebreak, Federer saved two match points at 4-6 and won the game by nine points to seven for the match.
Dominic Thiem, the fifth seed, broke Verdasco’s serve in the second game and held to lead 3-0. The Austrian raced to 4-1 but Fernando Verdasco took the sixth game. In the seventh game, Thiem was down 30-40 but leveled to deuce before losing the game on a third break point.
Verdasco leveled four-all but lost his serve to lose the set 6/4. Each player held serve in the second set until Verdasco broke Thiem’s serve for the seventh game.
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