Fognini fights past Murray in Rome thriller to reach second round

Italian wildcard Fabio Fognini thrilled the home crowd as he edged out former world No 1 Andy Murray 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the Rome Masters at the Foro Italico on Wednesday evening.

The two 35-year-olds, who have known each other since their days as juniors, put on an enthralling show for the crowd but it was Fognini, coming back from injury, who came out on top in just under three hours.

“To beat a really big player like Andy in Rome, I’m really happy,” said Fognini, who will face No 30 seed Miomir Kecmanovic next. “I was feeling really good at the start of the clay season, in Estoril, then I got injured (foot) and was on crutches, so I’m really happy to win here.”

Fognini edged the first set as Murray failed to take numerous break point chances, the Italian snatching his to get the one break he needed for the opener.

But Murray, who won a Challenger Tour event in Provence last week, hit back strongly. The Scot raced to a 4-0 and 5-1 lead only for Fognini to suddenly turn on the style again. The Italian, playing beautiful drop shots and devastating forehands in turn, got back to 5-4 on serve, only for Murray to then break again to snatch the set and force a decider, clinching it on his eighth set point.

Fognini serve the difference in the third

In the second set, Fognini had lost two service games through a double fault; in the deciding set in Rome he served more like Nick Kyrgios, dropping just three of 23 points on serve, never allowing Murray a chance to get into any of his service games.

As the set wore on, Murray was clutching his lower back and he was powerless to do anything to stop Fognini finishing things off with an ace, his fourth in all. He won 23 of 27 points at the net and it was his first win in a deciding set this year, ending a run of four straight defeats.

It was also his fifth win in nine meetings with Murray, who will now rest and get himself ready for the French Open, if he decides to extend his clay-court season further.

Rome Masters, other first-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 7.705.780, most recent results first):

• Matteo Arnaldi vs. Diego Schwartzman
• Stefano Napolitano vs. Alex Molcan
• Hugo Grenier vs. J.J. Wolf
• Corentin Moutet vs. Fabian Marozsan
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Yannick Hanfmann
• Albert Ramos-Vinolas vs. Francesco Passaro
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Jeremy Chardy
• Dusan Lajovic vs. Nuno Borges
• Guido Pella vs. Maxime Cressy
• Luca Nardi vs. David Goffin
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Thiago Monteiro
• Ugo Humbert vs. Emil Ruusuvuori
• Marco Cecchinato vs. Mackenzie McDonald
• Hugo Dellien vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Giulio Zeppieri vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Marc-Andrea Huesler vs. Jason Kubler
• Gregoire Barrere beat Brandon Nakashima: 6-3, 6-3
• Arthur Rinderknech beat Flavio Cobolli (Q): 6-4, 6-3
• Roman Safiullin (Q) beat Marcos Giron: 6-4, 6-3
• Alexei Popyrin (Q) beat Christopher O’Connell: 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (Q) beat Jaume Munar: 4-2 ret.
• Arthur Fils (Q) beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo (Q): 6-1, 1-6, 6-4
• Alexander Bublik beat Pedro Martinez (Q): 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Alexandre Muller (Q) beat Kyle Edmund: 6-1, 6-3
• Yibing Wu beat Richard Gasquet: 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Cristian Garin beat Pedro Cachin: 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5)
• Laslo Djere beat Constant Lestienne: 6-1 ret.
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Luca Van Assche: 7-6 (7), 6-3
• Sebastian Baez beat Juan Pablo Varillas: 7-5, 6-3
• Marton Fucsovics beat Filip Krajinovic: 6-4, 6-2
• Stan Wawrinka beat Ilya Ivashka: 6-2, 6-4