Hungarian Fabian Marozsan’s win against Carlos Alcaraz on Monday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia stunned the tennis world. One of the best Hungarian players in history, Balazs Taroczy, was thrilled with the result.

“It’s an incredible win and it’s an incredible tournament for Fabian,” Taroczy told ATPTour.com. “He had some tough matches and since that he’s winning match after match. Very tough matches. I saw the one against [Jiri] Lehecka. He was down 4/2 in the third-set tie-break and it was 7/4 and I heard that he did the same thing today in the second set.

“It’s an amazing achievement and I think very, very [big] of course to beat Alcaraz when everybody’s just talking that nobody can win sets anymore against him. And suddenly there is an unknown kid from Hungary killing him. That’s fantastic.”

Taroczy understands what it takes to succeed on the world’s biggest stages. He climbed to No. 12 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and No. 3 in the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, both in the 1980s. The Hungarian partnered Heinz Gunthardt to the 1985 Wimbledon men’s doubles title.

Marozsan is competing in an ATP Tour main draw for the first time.

“I think the whole story is incredible already. I think for him to be in the qualifying of an ATP Masters 1000 tournament was a great achievement. And I think this shows the depth of men’s tennis,” Taroczy said. “Kids, once they get there they can show how good they are. They can make incredible things so I’m sure that it must have given him a lot of confidence that he is much better than he was until now, which was not bad.

“Still he was playing only Challenger tournaments and I don’t know where he is going to jump from now. But he’s very young and very talented, so hopefully he’s going to make great results.”

Taroczy had not seen Marozsan play before his big run in Rome. However, he follows the results of Hungarian players and saw his potential with two big Davis Cup doubles wins. Marozsan partnered Mate Valkusz past Australians John Peers and Luke Saville last year before defeating Frenchmen Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech this year.

“They had two incredible wins in the doubles in the Davis Cup,” Taroczy said. “I think [it] always shows if you are good for me when somebody’s good in Davis Cup and he’s doing surprise wins. [It] shows that he can play because it’s an extra pressure.”

Taroczy pointed out Marozsan was “very gutsy” in the final-set tie-break he played in the second round against 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up Jiri Lehecka. The Hungarian legend called his younger countryman a “great competitor”.

One of the players Marozsan has been able to look up to and learn from is Hungarian No. 1 Marton Fucsovics, who reached World No. 31 in 2019. Taroczy explained that having a role model like Fucsovics has been important for the new generation of players from his country.

“Very, very, very important. And as you said, for a long time, it was Marton in Davis Cup and those tournaments that he was winning,” Taroczy said. “We have three very good promising younger guys: Mate Valkusz, Zsombor Piros, they [did well] in juniors. Both those two. And then Fabian Maroszan. They are all very talented, aged about 23 [Valkusz is 24. And I’m sure that their achievements and their goals are really set because they saw that Marton Fucsovics did.

“Already for I think almost 10 years he’s been around at the big tournaments and in Davis Cup, he was always [playing] very well. So it is always very important to have an idol for the younger generations. I’m sure now the other two are going to be trying much harder. Because now they really see that it’s worth [it] to try.”

The quarter-final places are up for grabs on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where a bumper schedule includes all eight fourth-round matches at the clay-court ATP Masters 1000 and some rain-delayed third-round battles held over from Monday.

Ahead in their postponed matches, fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2017 champion Alexander Zverev and home favourite Lorenzo Musetti will all need to pull double duty to advance to the quarter-finals.

The fourth-round clashes that are already set are headlined by reigning champion Novak Djokovic’s meeting with Briton Cameron Norrie, while Casper Ruud meets Laslo Djere. Italian Jannik Sinner will lead home hopes against Francisco Cerundolo.

ATPTour.com looks at some of the key matchups on Day 7 across the men’s singles draw.

[1] Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs. [13] Cameron Norrie (GBR)

Djokovic has reached at least the quarter-finals in all 16 of his previous appearances in Rome. The Serbian will aim to extend that record to 17 when he meets British lefty Norrie in the fourth round.

The reigning champion Djokovic has done what’s been required so far in Rome, defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Grigor Dimitrov to kickstart his quest for a record-extending 39th ATP Masters 1000 crown. The Serbian will look to move through the gears and find another level when he takes on Norrie in their third ATP Head2Head meeting.

Djokovic leads Norrie 2-0, but will be aware of the 27-year-old’s threat. Possessing endless amounts of stamina, the Briton can be expected to hang tough and grind away on the Italian clay as he seeks his second Masters 1000 fourth-round spot of the season. Norrie, who beat Alexandre Muller and Marton Fucsovics, is currently 10th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin.

[4] Casper Ruud (NOR) vs. Laslo Djere (SRB)

After a modest season by his standards, Ruud has started to show signs of his best level this week in Rome. The Norwegian, who is a two-time semi-finalist at the clay-court event, swept aside Arthur Rinderknech in his opening match before he edged Alexander Bublik in a third-set tie-break.

Next up is Djere, who leads Ruud 2-0 in their ATP Head2Head series. Four years ago, Djere defeated Ruud on clay in Rio de Janeiro before he sunk the Norwegian in Auckland earlier this season. The 27-year-old Djere, who has yet to drop a set this week in Rome, will be aiming to reach the fourth round at an ATP Masters 1000 for the first time.

[8] Jannik Sinner (ITA) vs. [24] Francisco Cerundolo (ARG)

Home hope Sinner earned two contrasting victories to begin his bid to become the first Italian champion in Rome since Adriano Panatta in 1976. He swept aside Thanasi Kokkinakis but was pushed to three sets in a baseline battle with Alexander Shevchenko at the Foro Italico.

The 21-year-old can expect a similar test of his groundstrokes from the 24th-seeded Cerundolo on Tuesday. The Argentine had not won a main-draw match in the Italian capital prior to this year but has fought through two three-setters to book his last-16 spot. Sinner leads 2-1 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, with all three previous meetings coming on hard courts in 2022.

Also In Action…

Carlos Alcaraz conqueror Fabian Marozsan will look to back up his standout win against Madrid semi-finalist Borna Coric, while Andrey Rublev meets German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. Rublev holds a 12-2 record on clay this season, highlighted by his title run in Monte-Carlo. Australian qualifier Alexei Popyrin, who defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round, seeks to end the debut run of seventh seed Holger Rune.

A 15th chapter of Daniil Medvedev and Zverev’s ATP Head2Head rivalry will also feature on the Tuesday schedule should the latter complete a third-round victory over J.J. Wolf. Zverev leads the American 6-4, 3-3.

Stefanos Tsitsipas leads Lorenzo Sonego 6-3 in his third-round match. The winner of that clash will play 12th seed Frances Tiafoe or home hope Lorenzo Musetti. The 21-year-old Musetti leads Tiafoe 5-7, 6-4, 2-1 with a break of serve in the deciding set as he looks to join his countryman Sinner in the fourth round.

Three matches in progress Monday evening at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia will be completed on Tuesday due to rain.

The clashes on court were between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Lorenzo Sonego, Frances Tiafoe and Lorenzo Musetti, and Alexander Zverev and J.J. Wolf.

🇬🇧 Today’s remaining matches won’t resume due to inclement weather.

We’ll get you updated on tomorrow’s order of play in the next few hours.#IBI23 | @atptour | @WTA pic.twitter.com/GyfxWERbEP

— Internazionali BNL d’Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 15, 2023

Tsitsipas led Sonego 6-3 on centre court in their third ATP Head2Head meeting. The Greek, who reached the final last year in Rome, won their first two battles.

Musetti thrilled his home crowd on Grand Stand Arena, where he took a 5-7, 6-4, 2-1 lead. The Italian leads by a break in the deciding set.

Zverev, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Foro Italico in 2017, leads Wolf 6-4, 3-3 on Pietrangeli.

The winner of each match is scheduled to play twice on Tuesday. All fourth-round matches are set to be completed Tuesday, so the three in-progress clashes are scheduled for second match on (not before 12:30 p.m. local) with the winners returning later in the day for their fourth-round match.

Are you excited for the next batch of Break Point Season 1 episodes? The next five installments of Netflix’s hit tennis series will be released in June, but some of the show’s stars reunited to recap what is out there so far.

Felix Auger-Aliassime, Paula Badosa, Matteo Berrettini, Taylor Fritz, Casper Ruud and Maria Sakkari gathered to discuss some of the most memorable moments from the first five episodes.

“Walking here before we even got here I said, ‘This is what we’re going to be talking about,’” Fritz said.

What was he referring to? Matteo Berrettini’s messy hotel room!

“It was actually better. It could have been worse,” Berrettini said. “There were like, ‘No we love this.’ I was like, ‘Okay if you love it, I love it.’”

The group spoke about many topics from the show, including Rafael Nadal’s intimidating pre-match warmup, when he often does a series of short sprints in front of his opponents. Break Point brought viewers behind the scenes of when he did that last year at Roland Garros.

“I knew it was going to happen and I knew he was going to pull it out or do it, but it didn’t really make a difference,” Ruud said. “I mean obviously he killed me and destroyed me, but I don’t think it was because he did those steps in the locker room… I don’t think it was because of that to put it this way. So people might think that, but I don’t think that.”

There were also deeper topics broached, including mental health. Badosa explained why she was willing to open up in front of the cameras.

“I tried to be very honest, to express myself, the fears that I had and have,” Badosa said. “We hit balls but I think it’s much more. The 90 per cent on and off court, so many things [in] this sport [are] so mental. So I just wanted to maybe normalise the situation a little bit more.”

The reunion also featured the Break Point Awards. Who is most likely to have a reality TV career? Who is most natural on camera? Who is most likely to rewatch their episode 10 times?

To learn who the players selected, watch the full Netflix Break Point reunion above.

Andy Murray is celebrating his 36th birthday Monday in Bordeaux, France, where the Scot is gearing up for this week’s star-studded ATP Challenger Tour 175 event.

Despite being the third-oldest player in the Top 50, Murray can still take down the best players in the world. The three-time major champion proved so by rolling back the years at this month’s Aix-en-Provence Challenger, where he defeated World No. 17 Tommy Paul in the final, capturing his first title at any level since 2019.

Can Murray produce another strong week en route to a Challenger 175 crown at the BNP Paribas Primrose? The path won’t be easy. The former World No. 1 could clash against three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round, should the Swiss defeat qualifier Ugo Blanchet in his opener.

An encounter between Murray and Wawrinka would be must-watch TV for the tennis world. The pair has met on the biggest stages of the sport, including in two tour-level finals (2008 Doha, 2019 Antwerp) and two Grand Slam semi-finals (Roland Garros 2016, 2017). They’ve also met at the Nitto ATP Finals, in Davis Cup, and at the Olympics. Across 22 tour-level meetings, Murray leads Wawrinka 13-9. If Murray were to meet the 24-year-old Blanchet, it would be their first meeting.

The second seed Murray is in the bottom half of the draw alongside Richard Gasquet, Ugo Humbert, Mikael Ymer, and Thanasi Kokkinakis. Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche are among the #NextGenATP Frenchmen aiming for a run on home soil.

Jan-Lennard Struff, who was a finalist at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid, is the top seed at the BNP Paribas Primrose. The World No. 28 was a semi-finalist at the Challenger 175 debut event in Phoenix, Arizona, where he fell short to eventual champion Nuno Borges. This week, the heavy-hitting German is seeded to meet Adrian Mannarino in the last four.

Fans in Bordeaux will be treated to a first-round clash between home favourite Benoit Paire and former World No. 3 Dominic Thiem. The pair has met three times before, with Thiem holding a perfect record, including a five-set victory over the Frenchman at the 2019 Australian Open. Paire arrives at the Challenger 175 off the back of a finalist finish at the Francavilla al Mare Challenger.

Turin

World No. 40 Sebastian Baez headlines the field at the Piemonte Open Intesa Sanpaolo. After a disappointing early exit in Rome, the Argentine looks to find his best tennis on the Italian clay. The 22-year-old Baez has captured both of his ATP tour-level titles and all six of his Challenger Tour trophies on the red dirt.

Baez will open against a home hope, Riccardo Bonadio or 19-year-old Gabriele Piraino. The Buenos Aires native is seeded to meet countryman Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the semi-finals. Fifth seed Taro Daniel and Oscar Otte are also featured in the top half.

Second seed Daniel Elahi Galan reached the last four at the Cagliari Challenger 175 event, where he lost to eventual champion Ugo Humbert. A four-time Challenger champion, Galan will aim for his first title of the season. Juan Pablo Varillas, Yosuke Watanuki, and Aleksandar Kovacevic are the other seeded players in the bottom half of the Turin Challenger draw.

Turning up in Turin 👀🇮🇹

Preview the draw ➡️ https://t.co/sQmSWgVQ4U#ATPChallenger | @federtennis pic.twitter.com/womtEAkdkM

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 14, 2023

Where can I watch the Bordeaux and Turin Challengers?

All the live matches and replays can be found on the Challenger TV landing page. You can learn all you need to know about the tour on the ATP Challenger Tour Landing Page.

For App Users
To watch Challenger TV on the ATP WTA Live App, navigate to the screen you see when you open the app. On the purple navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, click the “More” button on the far right. The second option down will be “Challenger TV”, where you can select any match from any ATP Challenger Tour event that day.

To view Challenger scores, draws, schedules and more, select “Scores” on the navigation bar on the bottom of your screen. At the top there are two tabs: “ATP Tour & Hologic WTA Tour” and “ATP Challenger & WTA 125”. Select the latter and explore all the Challenger events for the week.

Chasing form, Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury reached the quarter-finals at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time this season on Monday. The second seeds clawed past Italians Andrea Pellegrino and Andrea Vavassori 7-6(1), 6-7(1), 10-7 at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Ram and Salisbury, who reached the final in Rome in 2021, saved one set point in the first set and then held their nerve in the Match Tie-break to advance after one hour and 59 minutes.

Ram and Salisbury have won three ATP Masters 1000 titles as a team and will continue their quest for a fourth against Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos. The Spanish-Argentine team defeated Daniel Evans and Ben Shelton 6-1, 7-6(1).

Jason Kubler and Alex de Minaur won a thriller against Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden. The Australians saved two match points to triumph 2-6, 7-6(8), 12-10.

Jamie Murray and Michael Venus advanced, defeating fourth seeds Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6(7), 4-6, 10-2, while Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski beat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek 7-6(3), 6-2.

If Carlos Alcaraz didn’t know much about Fabian Marozsan before Monday, he does now.

The World No. 2’s 12-match winning streak was snapped by the No. 135-ranked qualifier at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where Marozsan produced a barrage of clean hitting to register a major shock in the third-round clash. A philosophical Alcaraz admitted he had expected a high level from the 23-year-old Hungarian, but perhaps not quite so high.

“I didn’t watch too much of him before the match,” said Alcaraz in his post-match press conference. “I just followed a lot of [his] results in the Challengers and stuff. He did well. He was doing well before here.

“Of course, he surprised me a lot. I mean, his level was really, really high. I’m sure he’s going to break the Top 100 very, very soon. It was surprising for me.”

While every player has an off day, Alcaraz believes that it was the quality of Marozsan’s game that proved decisive at the Foro Italico, rather than any major issues with his own display.

“I was perfect physically. I just didn’t feel comfortable,” said the Spaniard. “He made me feel uncomfortable on court. I mean, he was aggressive all the time. He was playing inside the baseline all the time. It was tough for me to get into the match, into the rallies. I made a lot of mistakes that I usually don’t make [often].

“Obviously these days can happen in tennis, and you have to handle it. In the second set I was close, I had my chances, but I didn’t take the chances. He was at the same level all the time.”

Despite the disappointment of his Rome debut ending in third-round defeat, Alcaraz will use the extra time off to begin his preparations for Roland Garros. He may have racked up a 20-2 record on clay for the season so far, but the 20-year-old knows he needs to be at his best physically if he is going to compete for the title across five-set matches at the clay-court Grand Slam in Paris.

“I’m going to rest little bit, some days off for me,” said Alcaraz, who won back-to-back titles in Barcelona and Madrid prior to coming to Rome. “I really need some days to reset my mind a little bit, to be fresh for Roland Garros.

“Of course, to practise [is not a] secret. You have to practise. If you want to do a good result in Paris, if I want to go to Paris in a good shape, I have to practise, to be better. I couldn’t practise more than three, four days in a row. I’ve been playing so much.

“It’s going to be really helpful for me to have days at home practising and getting ready for Roland Garros.”

Although he has competed twice before at Roland Garros (he reached the quarter-finals last year) and knows what it takes to go all the way at a major after his 2022 US Open triumph, Alcaraz is already guaranteed a new experience for this year’s trip to Paris. He will play as the top seed at a Grand Slam for the first time in the French capital because he is guaranteed to replace Novak Djokovic as No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings on 22 May.

“It’s great to be No. 1 seed in a Grand Slam, in Paris,” said Alcaraz, when asked about the pressure of headlining a major draw. “That’s a tournament [where] I really want to have a good result.

“I try not to think about it. For me it’s the same to be No. 1, No. 2, No. 3. Probably the draw is the same [with those rankings]. It’s great, but at the same time it’s not really [more] helpful for me.”

“He only wanted to hit forehands, so I was hitting everything there.”

Cameron Norrie was happy to bow to the demands of an unexpected hitting partner in Florida in March.

The 27-year-old Briton took to court with Jon Bon Jovi prior to the Miami Open presented by Itau after the two were put in contact by the music legend’s daughter, a college friend of Norrie’s girlfriend Louise.

“It was so cool,” Norrie told ATPTour.com. “We went to a tennis club next to his place in Palm Beach and I played with him for 25 or 30 minutes. He only started tennis a couple years ago, so he was obsessed with it. For someone who had only played like two years, he was pretty good and [has a] really good technique on the forehand.

“Then he said, ‘Follow me, and we’ll go back to my house’ and we had some food. His house is obviously unbelievable, and he’s such a nice guy. So down to earth and so humble. It was really cool.”

Getting ready for a different kind of tour ..!!@cam_norrie @carlosalcaraz @FTiafoe @RafaelNadal @DaniilMedwed @rogerfederer @serenawilliams pic.twitter.com/dbYtzkUBBt

— Jon Bon Jovi (@jonbonjovi) March 22, 2023

Norrie, No. 13 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, was almost taken aback by the strength of his famous host’s passion for the sport.

“He just loves tennis in general and was so pumped for the [Miami] tournament to go and watch,” said Norrie. “He came to watch me practise [at Hard Rock Stadium] and he was already planning to go to Wimbledon [this year]. He’s got some concerts lined up over the summer [in the UK] and yeah, he was pumped.”

Although admitting he is no Bon Jovi ‘superfan’, Norrie was familiar enough with Bon Jovi’s work to realise he was spending time with rock royalty.

“Obviously I know all his big songs,” said the New Zealand-born 27-year-old. “I love it, but I was not like a huge fan. So I was pretty relaxed, honestly, but I know how big he is and how much of a legend he is. So it was just cool to see how humble he was. He treated me and my girlfriend so well and he was so down earth.”

Norrie’s trip to Palm Beach was not the first time he rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous this year. In Indian Wells in March, he suddenly found himself next to Microsoft co-founder and businessman Bill Gates.

“I was doing a photo shoot there and I said hi, and I talked to him for a little bit,” said Norrie. “He said he plays [tennis] three hours every day, which is a lot. I didn’t get to see him play so I don’t know if he’s any good, but it looks like he obviously likes it.”

Norrie is renowned as one of the most down-to-earth and hard-working players in the locker room. So how does he cope with the occasional celebrity encounters that crop up as part of his life on the ATP Tour?

“I wasn’t [nervous] with [Bon Jovi or Gates], but I think for [some] other famous people I would be,” said Norrie. “Like when I met Andy [Murray] for the first time, I was so nervous, and [Roger] Federer. Guys who I really respect, and I’ve been watching and seeing them.”

On Tuesday at the Foro Italico, Norrie will attempt to make headlines himself when he chases a first win in three attempts against six-time champion and World No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

That may seem a tough ask for a player who had only limited exposure to clay courts growing up, yet Norrie has worked hard to improve on the surface. In 2022 he lifted his first clay-court ATP Tour title in Lyon, and in February he became one of just three players to defeat Carlos Alcaraz so far this season with victory in the Rio de Janeiro final.

“I think obviously some good results in South America was great for me,” said Norrie, who went 8-1 across Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, when asked about his prospects for the European clay. “It gave me a lot of confidence, but I think I need to go back to square one and I’m going to have to play my best tennis to have a chance with the best guys in the world.”

The 93-time tour-level champion Djokovic certainly counts as one of those, but Norrie has a clear idea of how he can push the Serbian great when he steps on court for the pair’s fourth-round clash in Rome on Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m going to have to make sure I’m rested and play long points,” said Norrie. “On clay it’s no secret, to win matches, for me especially, I’m not going to go out and hit someone off the court. So, I’m going to have to slowly chip away and make it competitive.”