Tennis, Australian Open, insults in the Fognini-Caruso derby

All extremely easy for the blue top 10 Matteo Berrettini who for the first time in his career reached the third round of the Australian Open beating the Czech qualifier Tomas Machac, 20 years old and number 199 in the world, in four sets, 6-3. 6-2 4-6 6-3. The Roman tennis player gained the most experience, opening the field well and hammering with the coupled right serve. To pave the way to an easy hit, the breaks won at the opening of each set, except in the third in which life got complicated by offering an avalanche of break points to the Czech, good at exploiting the empty pass of the Blues and dragging him into the room. But Matteo immediately regained command of operations, closing in 2 hours and 39 minutes with 19 aces, 2 double faults, 67% firsts, 48 ​​winners, 47 free kicks and only one break conceded on 13 break points offered. . Matteo Berrettini will return to the field on Saturday to challenge Russian Karen Khachanov (easy winner of Ricardas Berankis 6-2 6-4 6-4) and secure a place for the second week of competition.

Fabio, how scary!

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The second blue in the third round (the third overall also considering Sara Errani) is Fabio Fognini who beat Salvatore Caruso by 4-6 6-2 2-6 6-3 7-6 in 3 hours and 56 minutes, prevailing 14 -12 in the final tiebreaker after having canceled a match point and closed on their fourth match point. It was an exciting and fluctuating match, with Caruso always pressing and Fognini attentive not to lower his guard too much. As is often the case in derbies, the worst start is the favorite player: the Ligurian immediately realizes the good streak of the rival who advances a set with courage and determination, keeping the Ligurian away from the baseline. Fognini recovers in the second, but at the beginning of the third he sinks again: he runs the risk of going below 3-0, he recovers but the ball of the 2 all fails and finally sinks, yielding the fraction with a 6-2 weight. In the fourth set we see the best Fognini playing with everything, moving around the board. In the fifth set, leading 3-2, Caruso slips, his ankle is bad, he is sore on the ground and he is forced to ask for the intervention of the physio. After a 10-minute break, Fognini struggles to maintain the 30-0 bar, then at 3 everything loses 2 break points. At 5-4 it is Caruso who reaches two points in the match twice, but fails to knock out his rival. In 5, Fognini still loses two more break points and the challenge reaches the final super tie break. Here Caruso leads 5-1, Fognini recovers up to 5 all, then the Ligurian is distracted and the Sicilian stretches 7-5 again. The arm fight continues, Fognini shortens, then with a very long exchange played on the reverse diagonal Fognini reaches 7 equals. Both are 3 points from the game. Caruso puts a direct cross in the hall for the 8-7 Fognini who reaches two points of the game for the first time. Caruso, however, takes the mini turn to serve for 8 all. The Sicilian, however, takes the right and Fognini gets to play the first match point with the available service. With two crazy risks, Caruso cancels the match point by breaking with Fognini’s backhand forehand. Fabio serves after the change of field in 9 all, Caruso’s right hand stops on the tape for 10-9 and for the second match point of the Ligurian with Caruso’s service. Second serve from the Sicilian who cancels the match point thanks to a direct error by Fognini. At 11-10 it is Caruso who has the first match point on the racket, but he serves from behind. At 12-11, the third match point also comes for Fognini, who accuses the little arm a bit; He could close with his right but wait and then a ball from Caruso that pinches the baseline with his right fails. He still changes the field in 12 equals and the miracle of Fognini with going to sign with a great backhand crossed from a passer for 13-12. The fourth match point, which Fognini plays with his serve, is the good one. Caruso’s answering service who ends up in the hall. Bad ending because after the end of the match Caruso and Fognini argue and insult each other. In the third round Fognini awaits the winner between Alex Deminaur and Pablo Cuavas.

Hello Lorenzo

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Lorenzo Sonego’s adventure at the 2021 Australian Open ends with Feliciano López. The Piedmontese tennis player, after winning the first two sets, gave way to the 39-year-old Spaniard who won the challenge 5-7 3-6 6-3 7 -5 6-4 in 3 hours and 18 minutes. A real shame, a great opportunity thrown to the wind because the Blues have dominated throughout much of the game without being able to face the coup de grace. Although balanced, the game began with a Sonego very willing to handle López’s left-handed trajectories, proactive in responding and very attentive in his batting at-bats. The first break points for the Blues came as early as Game 6, but Lopez was fine to recover from 0-40 and nullify four in total. At 5-4 it is still the Spaniard who is in trouble: three set points canceled for the blue who temporarily lost the length of the backhand. But two games later, with a spectacular backhand winning response, Sonego converted the fourth set point to take home the first set 7-5. A confident Sonego continued on his way undisturbed, flying forward 3-0 and then easily holding the break and taking home the second set. But at this point, the game suddenly changed dominance. Sonego could no longer conquer a break point, while López had his first chance of the match in 3 equal to the third that he used to shorten the distance. The inertia had now changed: at 5 equal in the fourth set, two forehand errors by Sonego allowed López to go to serve for the set and then extend to the fifth the challenge that López made his own with another surgical break obtained in 2 pairs, when even the forehand had left poor Sonego. Similar statistics in the abacus of the two players: 15 aces, 3 double faults, 75% of the first, 75% of points won with the first, 37 winners, 54 free for Sonego, 16 aces, 4 double faults, 61% of premium, 80% achievement with the first, 42 winners, 50 free for López. The difference is fundamentally the break points: 2 of 11 those exploited by the Blues, 3 of 3 that of the Spanish.

Friday Sara

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Sara Errani is back on the field tomorrow, looking for a pass to the second seventh against Chinese Taipei Su Wei Hsieh. The winner of this match has a far-reaching eighth final on the way against the winner of the match between Sorana Cirstea and Marletaa Vondrousova.