Rublev upset in second round of Rome while Ruud, Sinner advance

Sixth seed Andrey Rublev was bundled out of the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’ Italia in Rome on Tuesday, going down in straight sets to Serbia’s Filip Krajinovic.

Krajinovic, ranked No 54 in the world, got off to a quick start, winning the first four games and jumping to a 4-0 lead. The Serb held on that momentum and ran away a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Rublev, who has won 3 ATP titles in 2022, in one hour and nine minutes.

The win improved Krajinovic’s record over Rublev to 3-2 and took his record against Top 10 players to 4-23.

The Serb will next meet the winner of Wednesday’s all-Italian clash between 10th seed Jannik Sinner and Fabio Fognini. Sinner was a comfortable 6-4, 6-3 winner over Pedro Martinez in a first-round match on Tuesday.

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Ruud and Auger-Aliassime advance to next round in Rome

In other second round matches on Tuesday, two players, who have struggled in recent weeks after impressive results earlier in the year, won their second round matches.

Fifth seed Casper Ruud came from a set down to beat Dutchman Botic Van De Zandschulp 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. The Norwegian, who reached his first ATP Masters hardcourt final in Miami, is now only 5-4 on clay for the year after suffering early exits in Munich and Madrid. Ruud will play either David Goffin or Jenson Brooksby in the round of 16.

Eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime scored a morale-boosting win over Monte-Carlo runner-up Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 to improve to 7-7 since Indian Wells while 13th seed Denis Shapovalov defeated Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 7-6.

In other first-round matches on Tuesday, Belgium’s David Goffin continued his good run of form with an upset win over the No 11 seed Hubert Hurcakz 7-6, 7-6. 31-year-old Goffin, now ranked 48th in the world, came through the qualifiers last week in Madrid and reached the fourth round where he went down in a nail-biting match to Rafael Nadal after holding multiple match points.

Ninth seed Cameron Norrie deefated Italian Luca Nardi 6-4, 6-4, 12th seed Diego Schwartzman overcame a stiff challenge from Miomir Kecmanovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-6.

American veteran John Isner rode his big serve to beat Francisco Cerundolo 6-4, 6-3 to set up a second-round clash against 10-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal.

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