One & Done! Musetti clinches MP vs. Medvedev after rain delay; faces Zverev next

Lorenzo Musetti earned one of the most unique victories of his career on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, where he finally overcame Daniil Medvedev and a two-hour, 52-minute rain delay to book his spot in the quarter-finals.

At 7-5, 5-4, 30/30, the Italian was on the verge of victory before the heavens opened in the Italian capital. With the rain pouring down, fans rushed for cover while Musetti and Medvedev continued for one more point, which the Italian won with a deft drop shot.

However, with Musetti on match point, play was then suspended by the chair umpire due to the rain at 4:38 p.m. local time. After a two-hour, 52-minute delay, Musetti returned to court and immediately won the one point he needed with a forehand winner to seal a 7-5, 6-4 win.

A finalist in Monte-Carlo and a semi-finalist in Madrid this year, Musetti has won 21 of his past 25 matches on clay and is playing at a career-high No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings this week. The eighth seed, who is the first Italian in history to play at all three clay-court Masters 1000 quarter-finals in the same season, will next meet Alexander Zverev, who defeated Arthur Fils 7-6(3), 6-1.

Medvedev defeated Cameron Norrie and Alexei Popyrin in straight sets to reach the fourth round but was unable to cope with Musetti’s variety on Grand Stand Arena.

The 23-year-old Musetti rallied from a break down in the first set, hit with heavy spin to pull the 10th seed from corner to corner and was more consistent in the baseline exchanges, committing 15 unforced errors to 26 from Medvedev. Musetti has now reached five quarter-finals at ATP Masters 1000 events.

Defending champion Zverev, who also beat Novak Djokovic in the 2017 Rome title match, said that he was impressed by the quality from both players in his victory over Fils tonight.

"It was back and forth a lot of times and I thought the level was really, really high," Zverev said. "When he was coming back he was actually winning the points and playing ridiculously good tennis. I couldn't blame myself too much, I thought I was doing the right things. It paid off and I'm really happy about the win.

"Lorenzo is with a lot of confidence now and has been playing well throughout the entire clay-court season. I'm looking forward to the challenge."

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In another rain-impacted match, Hubert Hurkacz downed #NextGenATP Czech Jakub Mensik 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5) in three hours and one minute to advance to his first Masters 1000 quarter-final since Cincinnati last August.

The Pole fired 16 aces and saved all three break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to defeat the Miami champion Mensik and improve to 2-0 in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Hurkacz will next look to avenge last year’s quarter-final loss at this very event to Tommy Paul.

The American Paul advanced by defeating Alex de Minaur 7-5, 6-3, which marked the 11th seed's maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head win across six meetings with the Australian. It also marked Paul’s first Top 10 victory this season.

Paul hit with great depth to target De Minaur’s two-handed backhand, which drew 30 of his 49 unforced errors. Paul, who turns 28 on Sunday, is the first American man to reach back-to-back Rome quarter-finals since Jim Courier and Pete Sampras in 1993-94.