Home » Atp Hamburg – A good Fognini is not enough against Khachanov. Palermo, out goes Cocciaretto

Fognini’s run in Hamburg ends in the round of 16. The winner of the 2013 and 2015 tournaments plays a strong match against Karen Khachanov, the defending champion and winner of three of the last four tournaments.

The talented Italian lost due to a few errors here and there, but more importantly due to a slow start and some bad luck near the tie-break of the second set. However, a significant improvement over recent Fognini, particularly in terms of the quality of his groundstrokes and his overall control of point play.

Even the blue has a shot at forcing a tiebreak in this match. In the end, the score is 6-3, 7-5. On the eve of his North American tour, Fognini leaves Hamburg with the satisfaction of having won his 400th career match (a feat never before accomplished by an Italian tennis player).

Carlos Alcaraz, who also advanced to the quarterfinals despite needing overtime to beat Kunh in the first round, is also very tired. First set went to a tiebreaker, but the Spanish tennis player eventually pulled away midway through the second set to win 7-6(3), 6-3, and move within three wins of the world’s fourth spot.

In the semifinals, he’ll square off against Khachanov. Similarly, Elisabetta Cocciaretto found herself in a sticky situation late in Palermo. The Italian tennis player, fresh off a 6-0 rout of Caroline Garcia, went toe-to-toe with the seasoned French player for more than two hours before finally prevailing, 0-6 6-4 6-3.

Parallel to this, Lucia Bronzetti had a breeze of it, advancing to the round of 16 with a resounding victory over Avanesya of Russia, who had capitalized on Martina Trevisan’s early exit (she was forced to forfeit due to a back injury) to team up with another Azzurra. The match ended with Bronzetti entering on a collision course with Garcia himself, having won 6-1, 6-3. Photo by Getty Images