From Novak Djokovic to Daniil Medvedev: Rome Open's projected quarterfinal draw for men's category

The draw for the men’s and women’s categories for the upcoming Rome Open finally took place on Monday. Just like every year, fans have been waiting to see which players will face whom towards the business end of the competition.

In the men’s singles category, the projected quarterfinal lineup could feature the likes of Norway’s Casper Ruud facing Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, Germany’s Alexander Zverev facing Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, Rublev going up against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas and current world number four Daniil Medvedev facing Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz. This year, Medvedev will be defending his title in Rome, which he won in 2023 after defeating Denmark’s Holger Rune in the final with a score of 7-5, 7-5.

The hype around the tournament has already been marred mainly because of the absence of some notable players, including the likes of home favourite Jannik Sinner and the current world number three Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz. The current world number two and the reigning Australian Open champion Sinner announced in a post on the social media platform X — previously known as Twitter — that he will not take part in the event to recover from a hip injury. On the other hand, Alcaraz announced that he would skip the tournament after again feeling pain in his forearm during the Madrid Open quarterfinal defeat to Russia’s Andrey Rublev. Besides these two, three more players have withdrawn from the mega-event, including Britain’s Andy Murray, Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta, and France’s Arthur Cazaux.