John Isner shot down Stan Wawrinka in the third round of the Rome Masters on Thursday, beating the Roland Garros champion 7-6(1), 6-4 while No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Roberto Bautista Agut.
Alexander Zverev advanced to his third ATP 1000 quarterfinal of the season beating crowd favourite Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3, two days after the Italian had scalped Andy Murray. The 20-year-old next faces fifth seed Milos Raonic who dismissed the 12th seeded Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2.
The 16th seeded Zverev who won the first set on a single break of serve, carried the momentum into the second set, running up a 4-0 lead before Fognini could put up some token resistance.
“It was a great match for me,” Zverev said. “I think I played very well, was very aggressive from the baseline. Fabio is someone who plays well here. And he beat the World No. 1 a few days ago, so I just felt like I was feeling the ball very well and was very aggressive. It worked out well for me.”
Fognini was attempting the to become the first Italian to reach the quarterfinals at the Rome since Andreas Seppi in 2012.
On the women’s side qualifier Anett Kontaveit, who had beaten No .1 Angelique Kerber on Tuesday, made the last eight beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
The results:
Men: Third round: Novak Djokovic bt Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 6-4; John Isner bt Stan Wawrinka 7-6(1), 6-4; Alexander Zverev by Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-3; Milos Raonic bt Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2; Marin Cilic bt David Goffin 6-3, 6-4. Second round: Stan Wawrinka bt Benoit Paire 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Women: Third round: Anett Kontaveit bt Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-1, 6-1; Simone Halep bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 4-6, 6-0; Daria Gavrilova bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 2-6, 7-5, 6-4; Venus Williams bt Johanna Konta 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
Second round: Venus Williams bt Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3; Ekatarina Makarova bt Dominika Cibulkova 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Doubles: Second round: Sania Mirza & Yaroslava Shvedova w/o Olga Savchuk & Elina Svitolina .
