Daniil Medvedev cruised into the quarterfinals of the Italian Open after a commanding straight-sets victory over Thiago Tirante on Tuesday night in Rome.
The world number nine delivered a dominant performance in the round of 16, defeating Tirante 6-3, 6-2 to comfortably book his place in the last eight.
In another major result of the day, Italy’s Luciano Darderi produced a stunning comeback to eliminate second seed Alexander Zverev in one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.
Darderi appeared on the verge of defeat after trailing 3-5 in the second set, but the 24-year-old saved four match points during a tense tie-break before turning the match around completely with a dominant final set victory.
The emotional win marked Darderi’s first-ever victory against a top-10 opponent and also secured his maiden quarterfinal appearance at an ATP Masters 1000 event.
“It was a very tough match,” Darderi said after the match, according to ATP. “At the start I was not feeling very good physically. At 3-5 in the second set, I was done.”
He credited the home crowd for inspiring his comeback.
“I won because of the crowd. You cannot give up here. The crowd helped me a lot and it is a dream to be in the quarter-finals. It is the tournament of my life,” he added.
Darderi has now become the first player other than Jannik Sinner to defeat Zverev at a Masters 1000 tournament since Shanghai last October.
The Italian will next face rising Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar in the quarterfinals. At just 19 years old, Jodar is the first teenager to reach the Rome quarterfinals since Novak Djokovic achieved the feat in 2007.
