MATTEO Berrettini was the sole Italian to win his third round match after a record four players from the home nation made their way through to the final 16 at the Rome Masters. Berrettini indeed ended the run of one of them, knocking off compatriot Stefano Travaglia in two tiebreakers, 7-6 7-6. The first tiebreaker was 7-5 and the second a more comfortable 7-1, in two hours of match play.

The world number eight and fourth seed won 71 and 74 per cent of his first and second serve points off a serving efficiency of 73 per cent. The match was far from clinical, but the top ranked Italian was cleaner when it counted and booked his spot in his second ATP Masters 1000 quarter final against Norwegian, Casper Ruud.

Ruud overcame challenging Croatian, Marin Cilic in an hour and 33 minutes, defeating the 2018 Rome Masters semi-finalist 6-2 7-6. Ruud held on in a tense tiebreaker to win it 8-6 and book his spot in the last eight after Cilic came hard in the tiebreaker, saving two match points at 4-6, but Ruud got there in the end.

Also exiting the Rome Masters were Italian teenagers, Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Musetti. The latter has caught the attention of the ATP Tour with back-to-back wins over former top five players Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori, but his run came to an end at the hands of in-form German qualifier Dominik Koepfer, 6-4 6-0. Meanwhile it was Grigor Dimitrov who came from behind to defeat wildcard Sinner, 4-6 6-4 6-4.

The match lasted two hours and 24 minutes before the Bulgarian could salute, having to battle from a set down to win and make his way through to the quarter finals. The counter puncher hit 19 winners during the match, but it was his consistency that frustrated Sinner, who smacked 65 unforced errors in a loose performance.

Having reached a semi-final here before in 2014, Dimitrov now takes on Canadian young gun, Denis Shapovalov for the chance to repeat the feat in 2020. Shapovalov knocked off Frenchman Ugo Humbert in three sets, 6-7 6-1 6-4 to turn the tables on his opponent after losing to him earlier this year. Hitting 27 winners and controlling the net, Shapovalov was more consistent in what was a tight contest.

Meanwhile Novak Djokovic had to fight hard, but eventually saluted against compatriot Filip Krajinovic to reach the final eight for the 14th straight year in Rome. Krajinovic matched it with the world number one for the most part, winning 30 per cent off his opponent’s first serve, and 48 per cent off his second, much higher than most of Djokovic’s opponents.

In the end, the world number one only won nine more points than his lower ranked countryman, but it was enough to win 7-6 6-3 and face Koepfer in the quarter finals.

“It was definitely one of the longest sets I think I have ever played,” Djokovic said post-match. “Never easy, I think, emotionally to play against someone that is one of my best friends for many years… I think the first set could have gone a different way, as well. “Fortunately for me it went my way, and that allowed me to swing through the ball a bit more in the second set. Maybe physically and mentally he dropped a level, and I used my opportunities and capitalised to win in straight sets.”

In other results, tournament favourite Rafael Nadal breezed through to the quarter finals with a 6-1 6-3 triumph over Serb Dusan Lajovic, while Argentinian eighth seed Diego Schwartzman accounted for Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in three sets, 3-6 6-2 6-4. The two winners lock horns in the final eight for a spot in the semi-finals.