Thiem and Rublev survive close matches and move at the Rome Masters

Dominic Thiem and Andrey Rublev had very close matches at the Rome Masters but they survived and move on.

Dominic Thiem was the first to step out playing against Marton Fucsovics. The Hungarian is not the greatest of clay players but as Thiem experience, he can be tricky to beat. The first set was one by Fucsovics 6-3 due to Thiem's massive struggles on his own serve. He got broken 3 times in that first set.

The 2nd set was a very close one late with Thiem winning it 7-5 in the tiebreak. Earlier he was down 1-3 and it seemed like he would be on his way out of Rome. But after rallying in the 2nd set he completely took over the match in the final one smashing Fucsovics 6-0. The whole endeavour took him two and half hours but the Austrian will be glad to move on.

Joining him in the next round will be Andrey Rublev who had to dig deep against Struff in order to move on. The first set featured strong play from both players with Struff causing Rublev massive trouble. The Russian could not solve the serving riddle with Struff proving too good. The first one ended in a tiebreak where Rublev had a 4-1 lead.

The German was able to rally back and make it 7-7 before winning two straight points to close it out at 9-7. It was a wake-up call Rublev took seriously and he completed took over in the 2nd set. Struff could not replicate the elite serving from the 1st set and Rublev was able to cruise to a 6-1 2nd set win.

Rublev never looked back playing amazing tennis from that point on. Struff struggled massively in the final set as Rublev was hitting shots left and right. He broke Struff early and never looked back winning the final set 6-4. The whole match took two hours but Rublev will be happy to move on.