World No. 2 and second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz was shocked in straight sets by Hungarian qualifier Fabian Marozsan in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Monday in Rome.
Marozsan, ranked No. 135 in the world, defeated Alcaraz 6-3, 7-6 (4) in one hour and 40 minutes on the clay at center court. Marozsan was playing in his first ATP Tour main draw.
“I’m very, very happy,” Marozsan said. “I couldn’t imagine this. It was my dream last night. Now it’s true, I am very, very happy about this. … I just tried to do something special, maybe winning a few games or a set or something like this, and now I just beat the (World No. 2).”
Alcaraz saved five of six break points to force the second-set tiebreaker. He opened up a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak before Marozsan rattled off six straight points to seal the monumental upset.
“I tried to fight until the last ball, but it wasn’t enough,” Alcaraz said in his post-match press conference. “Of course, in the second set, it was close. I had my chances at 6-5, 15/30. I would say I could win that set, except little things happened. Of course, he deserves the win. If he plays at that level, he’s going to surprise more than one.”
Marozsan will play Borna Coric in the fourth round. The 15th-seeded Croatian recorded a 7-6 (3), 6-1 win over Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain.
Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia rallied to defeat No. 31 Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in one hour, 52 minutes. Medvedev reaches the fourth round in Rome for the first time.
“I managed to play better. Put more balls in the court and serve better,” Medvedev said. “That is the thing about clay for me. At the beginning of the match, you can’t just hit four aces to get your game going. A few double faults and a few missed shots and the first set was over.”
Fellow Russian and No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev recovered from being down 3-6 in the first-set tiebreak to defeat No. 27 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 7-6 (8), 6-3.
In other action, German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann was a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 winner over Italy’s Marco Cecchinato.
Three matches were suspended by rain and will be resumed on Tuesday. Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas is leading Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 6-3; Germany’s Alexander Zverev is up a set and tied with J.J. Wolf 3-3 in the second set; and Frances Tiafoe and Lorenzo Musetti are in the third set with the Italian leading 2-1.
Tiafoe was highly upset that his match initially continued during the rain while others were halted and he complained to both the umpire and the match supervisor.
“I don’t care about what the radar says. I’m looking at the sky,” Tiafoe told chair umpire Jaume Campistol. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. But now we stop. How are we playing? You are on the court and you’re watching it.”
Shortly after the match was suspended, Tiafoe turned his displeasure to match supervisor Ali Nili. He asserted the fact he was playing an Italian played a big part in the match not being stopped sooner. Neither official Tiafoe targeted was Italian.
“It’s been raining on the court but you’ve known that the whole time,” Tiafoe said to Nili. “Look at the court. It’s the same how it is now, but we stop now? I don’t understand when a player is complaining it doesn’t matter. You can’t play on the court.”
–Field Level Media
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