Fedex battles into Rome quarters

ROME

In a major shock, world No. 4 Dominic Thiem was dumped out of the Italian Open in the second round today by Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. The Austrian, who had received a first round bye, lost 4-6 6-4 7-5 in the final warm-up tournament before the start of the French Open on May 26. Thiem was left fuming at the scheduling for the event, which went haywire due to the rain yesterday.

Thiem was upset that the organisers kept the players hanging around all day when play was washed out. He said players were then caught up in clashes among football fans before the Coppa Italia football final in the nearby Stadio Olimpico. After a late night, Thiem had to be ready for an early match today.

Federer through

Roger Federer saved two match points against Borna Coric to win 2-6 6-4 7-6(7) and reach the quarterfinals. Earlier, Federer marked his return to the Italian Open for the first time since 2016 with a 6-4 6-3 second round win over Joao Sousa as top seed Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal also reached the last-16. As yesterday’s play was marred by rain, Federer along with Nadal and top seed Djokovic all faced playing back-to-back matches today to reach the quarterfinals.

Naomi Osaka produced a solid performance to beat Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-3.

Fresh from winning the Madrid Open last week, Djokovic eased to a 6-1 6-3 win over Denis Shapovalov although he did not look entirely happy on the court in the second set. Frustrated at one point, Djokovic had to replace his damaged racket after slamming it against his foot twice with the score at 3-3.

Later, he broke serve in that game and then wrapped up the match to set up a last-16 clash with either Philipp Kohlschreiber or Marco Cecchinato. Earlier in the day, Nadal had treated the Grandstand fans to a 6-0 6-1 demolition of Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.

Kyrgios out after outburst

Nick Kyrgios was defaulted from his second round of Italian Open clash against Norway’s Casper Ruud today after the hot-headed Aussie hurled a chair on to the court. Broken in the third set, threw his racket to the floor before kicking a water bottle and flinging a chair towards the centre of the court. Ruud was leading 6-3 6-7(5) 2-1 when Kyrgios was disqualified. — Reuters

Key results

Men: Rafael Nadal bt Jeremy Chardy 6-0 6-1, Roger Federer bt Borina Coric 2-6 6-4 7-6(7) Roger Federer bt Joao Sousa 6-4 6-3, Novak Djokovic bt Denis Shapovalov 6-1 6-3, Fernando Verdasco bt Karen Khachanov 7-5 3-6 6-3

Women: Naomi Osaka bt Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-3