Novak Djokovic yesterday eased into the Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-finals after breezing past Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4, although there was tension with the Briton after the top seed was hit by a smash.
The Serb has reached the last eight in each of his previous 16 appearances in the Italian capital and he did again, getting past Norrie on center court to set up a clash with either Alexei Popyrin or Holger Rune.
Djokovic is gunning for a seventh title on clay in Rome and his chances were made a little bit easier by the shock elimination of Carlos Alcaraz on Monday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Alcaraz, who won two consecutive tournaments at Barcelona and Madrid, is guaranteed to take the world No. 1 spot from Djokovic on Monday next week.
Djokovic won the first three games against Norrie and closed out the first set with little fuss, without needing to be at his best.
The 35-year-old then took the second set to 2-1 with a break, but in the next game Norrie broke back while angering Djokovic with a smash that hit him on the back of his left leg. Norrie had the whole court to put the ball away as Djokovic had given up on the point and was walking back to the service line.
Norrie raised his hand to apologies, but at the changeover after the Briton moved to 3-2 Djokovic gave him another long beady-eyed stare as he passed him.
After Djokovic sealed victory with his second match point he gave Norrie a cursory handshake at the net, while avoiding eye contact and exchanging no words with his dispatched opponent.
“So far so good,” Djokovic said of his progress in Rome. “It was an early start today. Strange conditions. I actually finished my warm-up 10 minutes before I went on the court, so I was rushing a bit with everything but we couldn’t play earlier because of the rain.”
“I’m just glad to overcome today’s challenge in straight sets and move on,” he said.
On Monday, Alcaraz slumped to a third-round defeat by unheralded Hungarian Fabian Marozsan.
The 20-year-old Spaniard had come into the tournament in Rome on the back of wins in Barcelona and Madrid, but was outplayed by 23-year-old Marozsan, losing 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Marozsan, who is ranked 135th in the world, won the final six points of the second-set tie-break to give Alcaraz a wake-up call.
Alcaraz said he required some sustained training to beef up his French Open preparations with the clay-court major beginning on May 28.
“I’m going to rest a little bit, some days off for me,” he said. “I really need some days to reset my mind and be fresh for Roland Garros.”
“If I want to go to Paris in good shape, I have to practice, to be better. I’ve been playing so much that I couldn’t practice more than three, four days in a row,” he said. “It’s going to be really helpful for me to have days at home practicing and getting ready to go to Roland Garros.”
He admitted he was outplayed by his Hungarian opponent.
“He surprised me a lot, his level was really, really high. I’m sure he’s going to break the top 100 very, very soon,” Alcaraz said.
In the women’s singles, Elena Rybakina saw off Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 6-3 to reach her first clay-court WTA 1000 quarter-final, where she is to face either top-ranked Iga Swiatek, the twice defending champion, or Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS