Ruud, Zverev Lead Charge Into Rome Fourth Round

Casper Ruud
Casper Ruud (photo: Francesca Grana/FITP)

ROME/WASHINGTON, May 10, 2026 (by Michael Dickens)

Casper Ruud, a three-time Rome semifinalist, has been one of the most consistent clay-court players since 2020. He leads the ATP Tour in clay-court wins (137), finals (17, tied with Carlos Alcaraz) and titles (12). On Sunday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the No. 23 seed Ruud moved into the fourth round with an upset of World No. 13 and 11th seed Jiri Lehecka of Czechia, 6-3, 6-4, in 89 minutes on BNP Paribas Arena. 

The World No. 25 Ruud’s victory, his 14th of the 2026 season and 18th in Rome all time, was the result of an all-around solid performance, in which he won 81 percent (30 of 37) of his first-serve points as well as 58 percent (11 of 19) of return points on Lehecka’s second serve. He hit 19 winners, made 17 unforced errors, broke his opponent three times in eight tries and outpointed the Czech No. 1 64-45. By comparison, Lehecka hit 11 winners and committed 26 unforced errors. 

The loss prevented Lehecka (17-9 in 2026) from reaching the round of 16 at the eighth of nine ATP Masters events.

Ruud, whose victory over Lehecka was his third in three career meetings and his second Top-20 win of the season, is through to the round of 16 in the ninth of his last 10 ATP Masters 1000 events on clay, losing in the second round of Rome two years ago. He has not dropped a set during his first two matches in the Eternal City this year.

“It was tough. Jiri has already had a tremendous year, so I was ready for a really tough match,” Ruud said during his on-court interview with ATP Media. “You are no matter who you play at this level.

“Jiri has shown some good form recently and beaten some top players. I tried to remind myself that we were playing on clay – quite slow clay – and let’s see if I can take that and use that to my advantage. Coming from Madrid, there was a big difference in the conditions and the quickness of the ball. I just tried to think that way and I’ve beaten him once before on clay. I thinking I’m going to give it my all. … I’m happy with the win.”

Next, Ruud, who dropped out of the Top 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time since May 2021, will face No. 8 seed Lorenzo Musetti. The Italian No. 2 persevered through his two-hour, 12-minute third-round victory over No. 25 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, 7-6 (7), 6-4, to advance to the fourth round.

Musetti’s victory extended his 33-9 win-loss record on clay since July 2024, including becoming the first Italian to reach the semifinals of all three ATP Masters 1000 events on clay (Monte-Carlo, Madrid and Rome) as well as Roland-Garros in a season, a feat he achieved last year.

Musetti withstood 25 winners from Cerundolo and pressured his opponent into committing 47 unforced errors. He saved seven of 10 break points and converted four of seven break-point chances against the Argentine No. 1. Musetti outpointed Cerundolo 84-79.

Zverev beats Blockx for second time in nine days

World No. 3 and second seed Alexander Zverev of Germany defeated Belgium’s Alexander Blockx for the second time in nine days. After eliminating the 36th-ranked Belgian in the semifinal round at Madrid, he beat Blockx again on clay, this time 6-1, 6-4, in one hour and 13 minutes on Campo Centrale. It was Zverev’s 29th career win in Rome, tying him for sixth place in the Open Era with Jan Kodes of Czechia and Eddie Dibbs of the United States.

Zverev saved both break points he faced and broke the 21-year-old Blockx three times in eight tries. The German No. 1 hit 17 winners and won nine of 12 net exchanges. He outpointed Blockx 60-42.

“I was much better than I was two days ago,” Zverev said during his on-court interview with ATP Media, two days after his 7-5, 6-3 opening win over fellow German Daniel Altmaier. “I think it was difficult to play pretty tennis from the baseline today because the conditions were not easy, it was very windy. But overall, I am very happy.”

With his latest victory, Zverev improved to 28-8 on the year. He’s through to the Rome fourth round for the eighth time in 10 appearances at the event. Since the Rolex Paris Masters last October, Zverev is 21-5 in ATP Masters 1000 competition – all five losses are to Jannik Sinner. He’s 25-0 in matches in which he’s won the first set this season.

 

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During a later interview with reporters, Zverev was asked to describe the challenging playing conditions, where it appeared windy at times on the main show court at Foro Italico.

“Yeah, difficult. Very, very windy,” he said. “Especially in the second set got very windy. Before the rain it got very windy. I’m lucky that I finished in time.

“Yeah, not easy to play pretty tennis. I was efficient today. Winning in straight sets is very nice.”

Next, Zverev will face No. 18 seed Luciano Darderi of Italy, who rallied to defeat No. 16 seed Tommy Paul of the United States, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in two hours and 23 minutes on BNP Paribas Arena Sunday evening. The victory advanced Darderi (16-10 in 2026) into the round of 16 at an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time. He finished with 22 winners and benefited from 47 unforced errors by Paul. Darderi, one of seven Italians remaining in the draw, outpointed his opponent 94-79.

Around the Foro Italico

• Two days after taking out six-time Rome champion Novak Djokovic in the second round and handing the World No. 4 his first opening-round loss in 19 appearances, 79th-ranked Croatian qualifier Dino Prizmic pulled off another upset to move into the fourth round. This time, Prizmic became the first Croatian man to reach the round of 16 at this level since Borna Coric in Rome three years ago after defeating No. 31 seed Ugo Humbert of France, 6-1, 7-5, in one hour and 20 minutes on Pietrangeli.

With his third win in the main draw to go with a pair in qualifying last week, the 20-year-old Prizmic has jumped to No. 68 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings, a career high.

Against Humbert, Prizmic hit 12 winners – seven of them aces – and converted three of four break points. He outpointed Humbert 63-42 in collecting his 10th victory at tour level this season.

“Today I play very good, very good level,” Prizmic told reporters after coming off court. “[I’m] very happy about my game. Match by match I play very good. Also today opponent was very, very tough. Yeah, but I again played very good.”

• Next, Prizmic will face No. 13 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia, who outlasted No. 54 Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, in two hours and 28 minutes on Supertennis Arena. Khachanov won  67 percent (26 of 39) of points on his returns of the Dutchman’s second serves while taking advantage of 42 unforced errors by van de Zandschulp. 

Khachanov (10-10 this season) is through to the fourth round for the fifth time in nine Rome appearances. It was his 10th career victory at Foro Italico.

• No. 19 seed Learner Tien of the United States rallied from a set down and, after trading breaks of serve in the deciding set, pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over World No. 11 and ninth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in two hours and seven minutes on Supertennis Arena.

Tien, ranked 21st, improved to 4-6 lifetime on clay – and three of his wins on clay have come in Rome. He improved to 11-10 against Top-20 opponents in his career (including 4-2 this season) after hitting 36 winners to 31 unforced errors and converting three of 10 break points against Bublik. He outpointed his opponent 102-96 in collecting his 13th victory of the season.

Next, Tien will face either No. 32 seed Rafael Jodar of Spain or 106th-ranked Italian wild card Matteo Arnaldi, who played later Sunday evening.

• In doubles, two-time Rome champions (2020, 2024) and this year’s No. 2 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina saved a match point and advanced to the second round with a 6-7 (6), 6-3, 12-10 victory over Italian wild cards Gianluca Cadenasso and Jacopo Vasami in one hour and 53 minutes on Supertennis Arena. 

Other winners include: No. 6 seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany; No. 8 seeds Francisco Cabral of Portugal and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain; and unseeded Germans Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner. 

Sunday’s Italian Open results

Monday’s Italian Open order of play

By the numbers

A total of eight seeded players – one-fourth of the 32 seeded players in the men’s draw – lost during Saturday’s second round. They include: No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 5 Ben Shelton, No. 15 Arthur Fils, No. 17 Cameron Norrie, No. 24 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, No. 26 Jakub Mensik, No. 27 Joao Fonseca and No. 28 Corentin Moutet. There are seven seeds from the upper half of the draw, led by No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner.

“Quotable …”

“You deal with a lot of ups and downs in a match. Even though a scoreline is 6-3, 6-4 and probably looks and seems comfortable, it’s not. You have chances of breaking, not breaking, getting broken this and that. It’s really stressful to be a tennis player at times!”

– No. 23 Casper Ruud of Norway, during his on-court interview after defeating No. 11 seed Jiri Lehecka.

 

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