Rome Masters: Tsitsipas books spot in last eight

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No 6 seed, won against Australian Alex de Minaur, the No 9 seed, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters at the Foro Italico in Rome on Tuesday evening.

It was a match that lasted less than a hour as he extended his head-to-head lead over De Minaur to 11-1.

“I tried to do the best that I could out there on the court, by bringing the best quality in terms of strokes, and I delivered,” Tsitsipas said afterwards. “Throughout the entire match I was pretty consistent with my serves and the ball placement. I was able to construct the points patiently and wait for the shorter balls to come up.

“I really felt like my opponent felt the heaviness and depth of my ball. It gave me courage, it gave me great belief in myself that I can continue pushing in that sense. I knew that I had something good working for me today.”

Tsitsipas, ranked No 8, will play Chilean Nicolas Jarry, the No 21 seed, next in what will be his fourth consecutive Rome quarter-final.

Earlier in the tournament, the Greek edged out German Jan-Lennard Struff (6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-4) and defeated No 27 seed Cameron Norrie (6-2, 7-6 (1)).

De Minaur, ranked No 11, beat Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena (6-3, 6-2) and edged out Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No 18 seed (6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Italian Open.

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Tennis Majors

Roma Masters 1000, other last 16 results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 7.877.020, most recent results first):

• Tommy Paul (14) beat Daniil Medvedev (2): 6-1, 6-4
• Hubert Hurkacz (7) beat Sebastian Baez (17): 5-7, 7-6, 6-4
• Nicolas Jarry beat Alexandre Muller (Q): 7-5, 6-3
• Alexander Zverev (3) beat Nuno Borges: 6-2, 7-5
• Zhizhen Zhang beat Thiago Monteiro (Q): 7-6 (4), 6-3
• Taylor Fritz (11) beat Grigor Dimitrov (8): 6-2, 6-7 (11), 6-1
• Alejandro Tabilo (29) beat Karen Khachanov (16): 7-6 (5), 7-6 (10)