Davidovich Fokina Features In Rome Qualifying Draw
Following his breakthrough this month at the US Open, #NextGenATP player Alejandro Davidovich Fokina shifts his focus to qualifying for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, which begins Saturday in Rome. The 21-year-old reached the second week at a Grand Slam for the first time before fifth seed Alexander Zverev brought his run to an end.
The Spaniard meets eighth seed Juan Ignacio Londero on Saturday in the opening round of qualifying. The Argentine, No. 62 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, won the pair’s only prior ATP Head2Head encounter on clay last year in Hamburg.
Former World No. 5 Tommy Robredo returns to his favourite surface when he takes on Gian Marco Moroni. The 38-year-old looks to level a 0-1 ATP Head2Head ledger against the Italian.
Another former Top 10 Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco, faces Damir Dzumhur in his opening match. Dzumhur won their only previous ATP Head2Head meeting two years ago in Rome.
A pair of Roland Garros semi-finalists, Ernests Gulbis and Marco Cecchinato, also start their qualifying campaigns this week in the Italian capital. Former World No.10 Gulbis meets Australian Marc Polmans. Gulbis, a six-time ATP World Tour titlist, started this year by reaching the third round of the Australian Open and winning an ATP Challenger Tour event in Pau, his first title in six years, before the Tour’s five-month suspension of play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Home favourite Cecchinato looks to take a spot in the main draw for the fourth straight year. The former World No. 16 and 2018 Roland Garros semi-finalist begins his quest against No.12 seed Egor Gerasimov.
Tennys Sandgren, Gilles Simon and Aljaz Bedene hold the top three seeds in the qualifying draw. All of them received first-round byes.