–

A couple of players who made some noise the last two weeks in Madrid are back at square one, in the qualifying in Rome.

Notably, that includes Daniel Altmaier, and Zhang Zhizhen. The former made it through, the latter dropped a tough three-setters.

Tennis is a pretty unforgiving sport.

Then again, 10 of the 24 matches (and one injury retirement by Nikoloz Basilashvili) were upsets on the day. Nearly half.

WTA Rome – Monday, May 8, 2023 results

(Rome is six hours ahead of EDT).

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Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Location: Rome, Italy (Joint event with the WTA Tour)
Category: ATP 1000
Dates: May 9 – 21, 2023
Prize money: $3,572,618
Draws: S96 – D32

Monday, May 8, 2023
Final results
Qualifying, first round

Injury retirements

[WC] Flavio Cobolli (ITA) def [22] Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) 52 retd

Upsets

Francesco Maestrelli (ITA) def. [5] Zhang Zhizhen (CHN) 75 26 75
Vit Kopriva (CZE) def. [6] Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) 76 (2) 36 76 (1)
[WC] Stefano Napolitano (ITA) def [8] Aleksandar Kovacevic (USA) 64 63
Emilio Nava (USA) def [10] Taro Daniel (JPN) 06 62 64
Fellpe Meligeni Alves (BRA) def [11] Borna Gojo (CRO) 76 (5) 63
Franco Agamenone (ITA) def [14] Otto Virtanen (FIN) 46 61 62
Jan Choinski (GBR) def [15] Jurij Rodionov (AUT) 26 61 62
Elias Ymer (SWE) def [16] Tomas Machac (CZE) 16 62 76 (4)
Maximilian Marterer (GER) def [19] Camilo Ugo Carabelli (ARG) 63 76 (6)
Andrea Pellegrino (ITA) def [24] Raul Brancaccio (ITA) 63 06 63

Seeds advancing

[1] Alexei Popyrin (AUS) def Riccardo Bonadio (ITA) 64 46 63
[2] Daniel Altmaier (GER) def. Jozef Kovalik (SVK) 62 64
[3] Alexandre Muller (FRA) def. [WC] Gianmarco Ferrari (ITA) 26 76 (4) 64
[4] Alexander Shevchenko (RUS) def. Oleksii Krutykh (UKR) 64 62
[7] Juan Manuel Cerundolo (ARG) def. Jelle Sels (NED) 62 62
[9] Yannick Hanfmann (GER) def. [WC] Julian Ocleppo (ITA) 64 76 (3)
[12] Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) def [WC] Matteo Gigante (ITA) 75 63
[13] Roman Safiullin (RUS) def. Joao Sousa (POR) 61 63
[17] Arthur Fils (FRA) def. Ryan Peniston (GBR) 62 46 76 (4)
[18] Hugo Grenier (FRA) def Andrea Collarini (ARG) 63 57 62
[20] Tomas Barrios Vera (CHI) def. Mattia Bellucci (ITA) 76 (4) 60
[21] Fabian Morozsan (ITA) def. Timofey Skatov (KAZ) 60 26 75
[23] Pedro Martinez (ESP) def. Andrea Vavassori (ITA) 62 57 62