Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka continued their Italian Open journeys with contrasting wins.
Nadal, bidding for an 11th Italian Open title, easily overcame John Isner in the second round.
The Spaniard immediately took away Isner’s biggest asset, his serve, countering it with his trademark spinning groundstrokes.
Although the unseeded Isner competed well, he had no answer after submitting two break points at 3-3 in the opening set as Nadal dominated the second to move to a 69-7 match record in the Italian capital.
Having lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in Madrid, the win over Isner ensured Nadal has still never lost consecutive matches on clay, with victory taking him to 44-0 in matches following a defeat on the surface.
Wawrinka, on the other hand, gutted out a win against Serbian Laslo Djere.
The former World No. 3 battled past Djere 7-6 (8), 3-6, 6-4 after two hours and 49 minutes to set a blockbuster clash against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Jannik Sinner, meanwhile, improved to 4-0 against fellow Italians with a three-set win over Fabio Fognini to reach the next round as well.
In a back-and-forth match that included several dominant stretches from both players, Sinner surged past his countrymate to earn a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
Alexander Zverev was made to work in his first match at the tournament but the german eventually prevailed over Sebastian Baez at the ATP Masters 1000 event.
The 2017 champion won 7-6 (8), 6-3 to set up a clash with Alex de Minaur.
Stefanos Tsitsipas had to save two match points to win against Grigor Dimitrov in another close match at the Italian Open.
His third victory over the Bulgarian in as many tournaments came by the way of a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4).
