Ready, go and immediately two derbies at the Internazionali Bnl in Rome. The men’s singles draw, drawn with the Trevi Fountain in the background, featured two all-blue matches in the first round, those between Matteo Berrettini and Stefano Napolitano and between Matteo Gigante and Giulio Zeppieri.
Italians
—
A total of 12 Italians have already qualified for the men’s draw at the Internationals, and others could arrive from the qualifiers. Without Jannik Sinner, number two in the world, a very painful absence for everyone, the only Italian seeded will be Lorenzo Musetti (n.27), who will make his debut in the second round against a qualifier or the American Eubanks. Speaking of the two derbies, in the other first rounds of the tournament in which the Italian standard-bearers are involved, Matteo Arnaldi will face the Czech Machac, Sonego will have a difficult match against Lajovic, Darderi will challenge Denis Shapovalov, Luca Nardi will have Altmaier, Fognini will be at Evans’ test and Vavassori will challenge Koepfer, while for Cobolli there will be a qualifier. As for the top players, perhaps it couldn’t have been worse for Novak Djokovic, six-time winner at the Forum and number one seed in the tournament. The Serbian will make his debut in the second round against the Russian Safiullin, and on his side of the draw he will have a potential quarter-final against Casper Ruud, who is really in form on clay this year (as demonstrated by the tournament won in Barcelona and the final in Monte Carlo) and a semi-final against the number three seed, Alexander Zverev, who has already won in Rome by beating Djokovic in the final (in 2017). In short, for the 24-time slam winner, the road seems anything but downhill.
seeded heads
—
The number two seed and reigning champion, Daniil Medvedev, who left Madrid injured and in doubt until the end, will have a difficult debut against one of Borna Coric and Jack Draper, and has found himself in a potential quarter-final against Hurkacz, only to find in the semi-final (always second draw) the fresh winner from Madrid, Andrey Rublev, or Stefanos Tsitsipas. In Rome there will also be, probably for the last time in his career, the King of the Internationals, Rafael Nadal, winner of the tournament 10 times, never anyone like him: the Spanish champion will make his debut against a qualifier, and then eventually find Hurkacz in second round and after, who knows, an intriguing possible round of 16 final against the one who has always professed to be his heir on clay, namely Holger Rune, finalist at the Forum last year.
