Quebecer Félix Auger-Aliassime gave up on his first outing on clay in Rome, when Australian Alexei Popyrin defeated him 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, Friday at the Omnium d’ Italy.
Auger-Aliassime had taken advantage of a bye in the first round, while Popyrin had defeated his compatriot Christopher O’Connell after going through qualifying.
Popyrin, 77th in the world ranking, continued his momentum by winning against Auger-Aliassime, 10ein a grueling duel of three hours and 17 minutes.
Auger-Aliassime struggled on serve, placing his first serve only 56% of the time. He also committed nine double faults and allowed 16 break points to his rival, who converted three.
Meanwhile, home favorite Jannik Sinner was nearly untouchable in his first outing in front of his home fans, winning 6-1, 6-4 over Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Sinner won all 16 points contested while serving in the first set, and 36 of 39 points contested on his serve in all in the game.
The Italian ended the game with a nice volley shot on his second match point.
“I’m happy with my level today. It was a little windy and it wasn’t easy, Sinner said. I felt the ball well. »
The last Italian to have triumphed at the Foro Italico was Adriano Panatta in 1976. Raffaella Reggi won the women’s section in 1985 at Taranto.
Ranked eighth this week, Sinner will face the winner of the duel between Alexander Shevchenko and Sebastian Baez in the third round.
Sinner finds himself in the same half of the table as the six-time champion in Rome Novak Djokovic, who played against Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the evening.
In other games, note Cameron Norrie’s 6-2, 6-3 victory over Alexandre Muller.
On the women’s side, ninth seed Maria Sakkari beat Barbora Strycova 6-1, 6-3.