There is always Tennys Sandgren between Fabio Fognini and glory. In the Australian Open round of 16, in fact, the Ligurian tennis player gave up in four sets to the American who had already stopped him in the third round at Wimbledon last year. No quarters, therefore, for the 32 year old from Arma di Taggia who also had the favors of the prediction on his side, if only for the different 'weight' of the ATP ranking: 12 against him against the 100 of the 28 year old from Tennessee, already 'executioner' of Matteo Berrettini in the second round. It ended after 4 sets and this time for the last blue bishop present in the Australian Slam there was no miracle of the fifth set, as already happened against Opelka and Thomson in the first and second round.
His seventh eighth at Major level had a different ending this time, ending 7-6 (5) 7-5 6-7 (2) 6-4 for the American after three and a half hours of fighting. Thus Fognini does not improve his Australian score which had seen him eliminated in the singles in the round of 16 also in 2014 and 2018, although in Melbourne he can always boast the historic title won in 2015 paired with Simone Bolelli. In the history of the Australian Open, there are always three blues who have reached the quarterfinals: De Stefani (1935), Pietrangeli (1957), Caratti (1991), the latter being the only one to succeed in the Open era. A pity, considering that the game is always lived on the wire and with Fognini who in the first set on the 5 equal wastes two chances of break, then losing to the tiebreak with so much outburst to the referee for a foot fault called on the first service in 11th point in the game. Nervousness that costs dear to Fabio who loses 13 points in a row (including a penalty point after the second warning) and finds himself under 4-0. Once the anger is gone, the blue finds again clarity and blows that make him even go up to 5-4.
But the calm of the American is right in the end, first by keeping the service to zero and then placing another break. In the third set everyone keeps his service but this time the tie break rewards the blue (7 points to 2) who hopes for yet another comeback. In the fourth there was still a lot of balance until the tenth game, when Sandgren was able to place the decisive extension and remove the pass for the quarterfinals. Now where Roger Federer will find him who after a first set in trouble, closes the practice against the Hungarian Fucsovics, n.67 Atp, with a score of 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2. Even easier for Novak Djokovic instead. The defending champion flies to the quarterfinals beating the Argentine Diego Sebastian Schwartzman 6-3 6-4 6-4 in just over two hours. Now Serbian, n.2 Atp, will face the Canadian Milos Raonic who won against the Croatian Marin Cilic also in three sets: 6-4 6-3 7-5
