Rome Masters: Ruud reaches last 16 after final set tiebreak v Bublik

Norwegian Casper Ruud, the No 4 seed, edged out Kazakh Alexander Bublik 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 to advance to the last 16 of the Rome Masters at the Foro Italico on Sunday.

Ruud, ranked No 4, will play Serb Laslo Djere next.

Ahead of his victory, the Norwegian defeated Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech (6-4, 6-0).

Bublik, ranked No 49, won against Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez (6-3, 7-6 (4)) and American Ben Shelton, the No 28 seed (6-4, 1-6, 6-2) in the previous rounds of the Italian Open.

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Tennis Majors

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

• Fabian Marozsan vs. Carlos Alcaraz
• Borna Coric vs. Roberto Carballes Baena
• Lorenzo Musetti vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Lorenzo Sonego
• Bernabe Zapata Miralles vs. Daniil Medvedev
• Marco Cecchinato vs. Yannick Hanfmann
• Andrey Rublev vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Alexander Shevchenko vs. Jannik Sinner
• Marton Fucsovics vs. Cameron Norrie: sunday
• Novak Djokovic (1) beat Grigor Dimitrov (26): 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
• Laslo Djere beat Cristian Garin: 6-3, 2-1 ret.
• Holger Rune (7) beat Fabio Fognini (WC): 6-4, 6-2
• Francisco Cerundolo (24) beat Gregoire Barrere: 6-7, 6-2, 6-2
• Alexei Popyrin (Q) beat Roman Safiullin (Q): 7-5, 7-5