After victories for Lorenzo Musetti last night over Stan Wawrinka and Stefano Travaglia today over Borna Coric; it is very much the week of the home hopes so far.
The Greek World No.6 was very much out of sorts for most of the contest being swept aside in the first set 6-1 in an opening foray; which could have seen the young Italian claim a bagel with two break points on Tsitsipas' solitary game.
From there, it could have been curtains very early for Tsitsipas with Sinner going 5-2 up in the next set; but the Greek showed some tenacity to bring it back to 5-5 and a tiebreak was forced after he double faulted twice to get broken.
Sinner missed two match points in the tiebreak before Tsitsipas took it long in Rome; but the former regrouped from having to spend an extended stay on the court and won through 6-2 in the final set reverting back to his brilliance of the opening set.
This was shown with a 40-0 game win to claim the match on the first match point; and it is the biggest win of the 19-year-old's rising career.
https://twitter.com/Jannik_Sinner/status/1306240769091604485?s=20