Italian Open in Rome, x. Round, Wednesday, 11.05.2022
Rome wants what Barcelona and Madrid have already got. When the world’s best tennis players serve at the Italian Open, fans naturally hope that one of their pros will end up on top.
On Wednesday evening, the audience will probably have a hard time deciding, because two local heroes are facing each other. In my Fognini Sinner tip you can find out why I see the younger player clearly in front!
Jannik Sinner or Fabio Fognini, one of them will definitely make it to the round of 16 in Rome!
The 20-year-old has had a lot of bad luck with strong opponents in early rounds in his three appearances in the Eternal City so far. In 2019, he lost in Round 2 to Stefanos Tsitsipas, in 2020 (after beating Tsitsipas) to Grigor Dimitrov and then a year ago to Rafael Nadal.
Now it should finally go far, in his opening match the South Tyrolean showed a rock solid performance. Against Pedro Martinez, he secured a 6-4, 6-3. He only gave his opponent two break chances, and he will also have to rely on his serve on Wednesday.
In 2022, Sinner is a real guarantor for the quarter-finals, but this is usually the end of the line. From the Australian Open to the Masters in Monte Carlo, the youngster has been fit and has always reached the round of the best eight.
A few days ago, he was supposed to go that far in Madrid, but nothing came of it. As strong as he played against Alex de Minaur, the 1-6, 2-6 against Felix Auger-Aliassime was a relapse into times that Sinner has actually long left behind.
By the way, he will actually meet his 14-year older compatriot Fabio Fognini for the first time in a tournament on Wednesday, whether the experience speaks in favour of the veteran from Sanremo?
Fognini has been anything but in top form this year. Right from the start, he had to push his limits in Rome to come to a laborious 6-4, 7-6 win over Dominic Thiem.
Since the Austrian has always failed in the 1st round since his comeback, Fognini’s victory is a rather shaky affair. He was lucky that Thiem could only convert one of his seven break chances.
In Madrid, the Italian was defeated by Nikolos Bassilashvili right at the start, only his performances in Belgrade were really convincing. Here he had fought his way into the semi-finals, but did not beat the really big competition with Marco Cecchinato, Aljaz Bedene and Oscar Otte.
When he faced Andrey Rublev, he was without any chance at 2-6, 2-6, the Russian is by no means stronger on the road than Jannik Sinner. By the way, when Fognini served in Rome for the first time in 2006, Sinner was not even in school.
So it’s a generation duel! Since the much older player has only reached the quarter-finals once in the Eternal City, I don’t count the Italian Open as one of his favourite tournaments.
My Fognini Sinner Tip
The crowd in Rome will definitely have something to cheer about on Wednesday, but who deserves the applause? Fabio Fognini struggled mightily against Dominic Thiem, many had expected a stronger performance here
The 20-year-old scored the much better results in 2022, while Fognini hasn’t put the fear of God into a player of his class for a long time. Therefore, my tip is:
Sinner wins 2-0!
