(by the correspondent in Rome) The top players at the 2024 Internazionali d’Italia are falling like ninepins: the last in chronological order is Andrey Rublev, fresh winner of the Masters 1000 in Madrid. After a sweaty debut against Giron, in the third set, the Russian was eliminated from Rome at the hands of the Frenchman No. 109 in the world, Alexandre Muller. In the round of 16 he will challenge the winner of Napolitano-Jarry. In his five career participations at the Foro Italico he has never reached the quarter-finals of 2021: after an easily won first set, the light went out for the Muscovite who filled his game with gratuitous errors and double faults added to so much nervousness. The Monte Carlo champion has an easy move forward, Stefanos Tsitsipas, with Cameron Norrie (6-2 7-6). More effort for Alex de Minaur who beat the Madrid finalist Felix Auger-Aliassime in a comeback 7-6 6-4 6-4: the two will meet in the round of 16 on Wednesday (the Greek dominates the previous matches 10 to 1 over the Aussie) . Waiting to see the title holder at work again Daniil Medvedev (played tonight against Djokovic’s protégé, Medjedovic) e Sascha ZverevTsitsipas, in excellent form and fresh from his triumph in Monte Carlo a month ago, is now the man to beat at the Foro Italico.
“The new scheduling of the season has a big impact on our body. It starts from the mental side and continues with the physical side. I think the extended days in the Masters 1000 plays a huge role and contributes a lot to the fact that these players get injured. It used to happen already with the 1000 structured over seven days, well, you have to be some kind of superhero to get through each event to the end. It’s not a very easy thing to do. Some people would need to do some testing first to understand how structure the season. So they should make decisions based on that. I think this won’t be the first time we see these types of injuries.”
