Campo Centrale was rocking once more on Tuesday afternoon as another Italian shook up the Internazionali BNL d’Italia draw.

Rome native Matteo Berrettini did the honours on day three, upsetting No. 5 and 2017 champion Alexander Zverev 7-5, 7-5 to celebrate his first Top 5 victory in front of a rocking Roman crowd. The 23-year-old Italian, who won the Hungarian Open last month for his second ATP Tour title (Gstaad, both on clay), broke Zverev once in each set, including in the 12th game of the second, to advance to the Round of 16 at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time.

Berrettini made his Masters 1000 debut only two years ago, when he was No. 249 in the ATP Rankings. But last week, the 6’5″ right-hander reached a new career-high at No. 31 in the ATP Rankings.

“Environment was great. The match that I played was horrendous,” Zverev said.

The German was coming off a quarter-final run at the Mutua Madrid Open (l. to Tsitsipas), but has struggled to find his top level this season and fell to 15-10. Zverev finished 2018 with only 19 losses (58-19).

Berrettini was the second Italian to cause a stir in Rome. On Sunday, 17-year-old #NextGenATP Italian Jannik Sinner upset American and four-time ATP Tour titlist Steve Johnson for only his second ATP Tour win and his first at the Masters 1000 level.

Read More: Sinner, 17, Already Knows His Advantage Over Tsitsipas

Berrettini, now 1-2 against Top 10 opponents, will now face Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who swept past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-1, 6-4 in 73 minutes.

Elsewhere, Portugal’s Joao Sousa saved four match points at 5-6 in the deciding set of a 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(4) victory over American Frances Tiafoe in three hours. Sousa, who also trailed 1/4 in the deciding set tie-break, will play third seed Roger Federer in the second round.

Karen Khachanov earned a confidence-boosting win against the ever-consistent Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut on Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The 22-year-old knuckled down to recover from a set and 3-4 deficit to win 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 29 minutes. By breaking a three-match losing streak against Bautista Agut, Khachanov will next play on Thursday against fifth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem or Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, whom he lost to at last week’s Mutua Madrid Open.

Khachanov wrestled control away from Bautista Agut by breaking in the ninth game of the second set, then powered through the decider for his ninth match win of 2019. Since winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Rolex Paris Masters in November 2018, he has won consecutive matches on two previous occasions: the Australian Open, where he reached the third round (l. to Bautista Agut) and at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where the Russian advanced to the quarter-finals (l. to Nadal). 

Borna Coric, the No. 13 seed, rebounded from a loss in his Madrid opener as he dismissed British qualifier Cameron Norrie 6-2, 6-2 for his first main draw win in Rome. Coric, who reached back-to-back Masters 1000 quarter-finals earlier this year in Miami (l. to Auger-Aliassime) and Monte-Carlo (l. to Fognini), will next face the winner between No. 3 seed Roger Federer and Portugal’s Joao Sousa. 

Elsewhere on day three at the Foro Italico in Rome, No. 14 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili defeated Rio Open presented by Claro champion Laslo Djere 7-5, 6-4. Djere had won their previous two FedEx Head2Head meetings, including their quarter-final match last month at the Hungarian Open.

In first-round action, American qualifier Taylor Fritz set up a clash with sixth-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori after a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Guido Pella of Argentina.

Jeremy Chardy completed his one-set shootout against fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet, which had been carried over from Monday night at one-set apiece. Chardy triumphed 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 and now challenges second seed and eight-time champion Rafael Nadal on Wednesday.

Marin Cilic didn’t have things all his own way at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia when Andrea Basso and the home crowd ensured it was far from easy.

In a match featuring seven breaks of serve, ninth seed Cilic recovered from a 0-2 deficit in the first set and a second-set comeback from 25-year-old Basso, making his ATP Tour debut, for a 6-1, 7-5 first-round victory over one hour and 39 minutes.

The Croatian, who has recovered from food poisoning that prohibited him from competing in the Mutua Madrid Open quarter-finals against Novak Djokovic, tightened up his game at 5-5 in the second set, returning with depth to break Basso en route to his eighth win in 14 matches this season. Last year’s Rome semi-finalist will now prepare to meet Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.

Struff didn’t strike any of his 17 aces in the third set, but recovered from 1-3 down in the decider to overcome 2014 semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3 in two hours. Struff won 25 of 25 first-service points in the second set, which turned at 3/2 in the tie-break in Dimitrov’s favour. Last month, Dimitrov beat Struff 7-6(2), 6-4 in the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters second round.

Earlier in the day, Moldova’s Radu Albot knocked out Benoit Paire of France 6-3, 6-2 in 87 minutes for a meeting against Italian No. 10 seed Fabio Fognini at the Foro Italico. Albot’s best performance in his seven previous ATP Masters 1000 tournament appearances came in March at the BNP Paribas Open, where he advanced to the third round (l. to Edmund).

The European clay-court swing is an important period of the season for competitors on the ATP Tour. With three ATP Masters 1000 events leading into the second Grand Slam of the year, there are critical ATP Rankings points up for grabs on the dirt.

The same can be said for those battling on the ATP Challenger Tour, with the month of May providing a true battleground for those seeking to round into form ahead of Roland Garros qualifying. Three straight weeks of signature Challenger tournaments began with a pair of French events in Bordeaux and Aix-en-Provence, and culminate this week in Heilbronn, Germany. That’s three weeks in a row in three premier settings with three strong draws.

The NECKARCUP is setting the standard on the Challenger circuit, with back-to-back ‘Tournament of the Year’ honours in 2017-18. Tucked in the southwest corner of Germany, less than an hour north of Stuttgart, is the sleepy town of Heilbronn. With the river Neckar curling around the downtown district and a vast expanse of vineyards dotting the surrounding region, Heilbronn’s tranquility provides players with a relaxed setting for a tournament.

One of the few remaining clubs on the ATP Challenger Tour to be founded in the 1800s, the TC Heilbronn Trappensee E.V. 1892 has hosted the Neckarcup for the past five years. World No. 10 Alexander Zverev broke into the Top 100 for the first time after lifting the trophy in 2015.

This week, defending champion Rudolf Molleker is the talk of the town. The German was the youngest winner on tour last year, at the age of 17, having streaked to the title in Heilbronn. It was just his third Challenger main draw appearance. From the hunter to the hunted, his potential is no longer a secret, but he is ready for the challenge.

The defending champ returns.

Rudi Molleker was the youngest #ATPChallenger titlist in 2018, on home soil in Heilbronn.

On Monday, he kicked off his title defence with a 57 64 61 win over fellow ?? Mats Moraing. pic.twitter.com/iGYIiXAIx5

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 13, 2019

“It was my first Challenger title, so all the memories are coming back again,” said Molleker. “There are some points that I remember pretty well and of course my celebration too. That I will never forget. And this year I already got my first win here today, so I’m just getting ready for Sandgren tomorrow.”

Molleker will face second seed Tennys Sandgren in Tuesday’s night session, seeking the fifth Top 100 win already in his young career. The first came exactly one year ago in the Heilbronn final, where he stunned another second seed – Jiri Vesely.

With Roland Garros qualifying one week away, players have one last chance to fine tune their games and put themselves in the best position in the ATP Rankings prior to the grass season. Two Germans looking to build confidence ahead of moving to the terre battue of Paris are Dominik Koepfer and Oscar Otte. Koepfer, ranked 173, is coming off a quarter-final appearance at last week’s stop in Braga, Portugal, while No. 139 Otte reached the final in Francavilla al Mare, Italy, last month.

The battle is on for @DominikKoepfer in Heilbronn

Tomorrow ➡️ top seed Krajinovic
Today ➡️ coach @RhyneWilliams in ? pic.twitter.com/CTt0c9ACpb

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) May 14, 2019

“You feel at home here,” said Koepfer. “The player area is the best you will find on tour. There’s plenty of food, enough bikes and a great place to cool down and warm up. You have your privacy too, which is important. They pick you up from the train station and airport too, which is 40 minutes away. You don’t get that at all Challengers. Transport is every 30 minutes and the hotel is very good. There are enough practice courts too. It’s just a great tournament, which really helps this time of year.

“I’m trying to build my ranking but it’s more fun to play better players here. That’s who you’re going to face next week in Paris. It’s been tough to get used to clay, but these past few weeks have been improving and getting better. I’ve only played a handful of Top 100 players so this is good for me [to open against Filip Krajinovic].”

With all 16 seeds inside the Top 130 of the ATP Rankings, the competition is fierce. Top seed and 2017 champion Krajinovic is in dominant form, coming off a signature victory over Stan Wawrinka at the ATP Masters 1000 stop in Miami, followed by a final run at the Challenger in Sophia Antipolis, France, and runner-up finish as a qualifier at the ATP 250 in Budapest. Other Top 100 stars  Sandgren, Alexander Bublik and Jiri Vesely are seeded second, third and fourth, respectively.

Heilbronn History

World No. 103 Denis Istomin rounds out the Top 5 seeds. The Uzbek will open against Otte on Wednesday, in what should be a featured early match at the clay-court event.

“It’s always great to play at home and this is my fourth time here,” said Otte. “Every year the tournament is improving and getting better. The whole organisation is great and the player area is a really high level for a Challenger. There’s also a lot of spectators supporting the Germans. We all like to play here. For me, it’s the best Challenger.

“This week is pretty important. Every week is important, but more so now, right in front of a Grand Slam qualifying. If you play well here it’s good preparation. You can check your level and the draw is always pretty strong. I think it helps you a lot for the end of the clay season.”

Also on this week’s slate is the Lisboa Belem Open, which returns for a third edition. Adrian Mannarino is the top seed, while 15th seed Joao Domingues looks to go back-to-back on home soil after lifting the trophy in nearby Braga on Sunday. And on the clay of Samarkand, Uzbekistan, top seed Corentin Moutet seeks a second title of the year. The tournament enters its 23rd edition on the circuit.

The lone hard-court stop of the week is in Gwangju, South Korea, where the three-week Korean swing concludes. Sergiy Stakhovsky and Brayden Schnur leads the charge, with sixth seed Soon-woo Kwon heading the home contingent. Defending champion Maverick Banes fell in the first round on Monday.

Like father like son has become much more than an adage of late for Casper Ruud, Norway’s Next Gen ATP Finals hopeful. It’s become a way of playing on the ATP Tour.

The 20-year-old #NextGenATP player reached the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings in March, becoming the first Norwegian to do so since his father, Christian Ruud, in December 1994.

One month later, Casper made his first ATP Tour final at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston, becoming the second Norwegian ATP Tour finalist after his dad finished runner-up in Bastad in 1995.

Casper, however, is showing signs that he might do more than just match his father’s accomplishments. On Monday, the Norwegian qualifier beat Brit Daniel Evans at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome for his first ATP Masters 1000 win (1-3).

“This year is kind of the first year where I felt like I’ve been really steady throughout many tournaments and many weeks in a row,” Casper told ATPTour.com. “I just won my first Masters 1000 match, so of course I’m really happy, but I’m also greedy and trying to go for more.”

Casper Ruud wins his first ATP Masters 1000 win on Monday in Rome. (Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

Greed on the court has served Casper well thus far, but the father-son rivalry has hardly been an intense competition. The two have accomplished the goals together, as Dad has coached Casper for most of his life.

“I know that he cares about me and he wants everything in the best way for me. So, of course, he’s been a really big part of my success and my team, ever since I was little,” Casper said.

“I’m from a small tennis country, and I don’t have too many people to look up to in my home country, except for him. He’s the only one who knows how it’s been and how the life on the Tour is. I think it’s been a huge advantage, even though I’m from Norway, to have my father so close to me and helping me with my tennis.”

The two form a rare sight on the ATP Tour – a former ATP player working with his player relative on a regular basis. Family members have coached players: Uncle Toni Nadal served as his Rafael Nadal’s main coach until 2018, and Tessa Shapovalova still coaches her son, #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

But few former players coach their relatives on Tour for a number of reasons, including the fact that many children of pro tennis players go on to pursue other interests or sports.

Christian introduced Casper to football, hockey, golf and, of course, tennis. He placed a racquet in Casper’s hands when he was only one year old and the bucket of balls was taller than him. The two would walk out to the family’s court in their tennis garden, where Casper learned how to play. Eventually, though, Casper narrowed his sporting interests to only tennis.

“He was the one that decided at age 11, ‘OK, this is what I want to do. I’m more into individual sports than team sports.’ Since then it’s just been about the tennis,” Christian said.

The family realised Casper might have a future in the sport and worked on a ever-evolving plan to take Casper to highest levels of the ATP Tour. He played Tennis Europe events, but also spent time at home, practising forehands and backhands and working on his fitness in Oslo.

His father, seeing how the game was changing from the ’90s, when it favoured more all-around players, to the modern game, which favours players with weapons, especially worked on developing Casper’s forehand.

By the time he was 17, Casper was the No. 1 junior in the world. The next year, Casper, 18, was into his first ATP Tour semi-final at the Rio Open presented by Claro, an ATP 500 event. He was just 33 spots from cracking the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings, a milestone achievement for every player.

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But Casper got stuck. For two years, he bounced around Nos. 108 to 205, never breaking into the double digits.

“It’s tough to stay focused and stay hungry every single week, especially in my case. I feel like I’ve been not stuck, but I’ve been ranked from 110 to 140 for about two years now. And you’re just pushing, pushing, pushing to get to that Top 100,” Casper said.

The family made his home training base the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca last August, and Casper, frustrated by not being able to break into the Top 100, confided in his Spanish colleagues – 22-year-old Jaume Munar, who reached the Next Gen ATP Finals semi-finals last year, and veterans Albert Ramos-Vinolas and Pablo Carreno Busta – about how they handled reaching the Top 100. Their advice: It’s almost tougher to break into the Top 100 than to stay there, the milestone is that significant.

“You have to keep a high level throughout the year to stay in the Top 100, but the [ATP Challenger Tour] level has been really, really tough the last couple of years. You feel like you can win every week you play, but you also feel like you can lose second or third round or first round,” Casper said. “Everybody on the Challenger Tour wants to make it, and they’re really, really hungry and fighting as crazy guys.”

In February, however, Casper made the quarter-finals in Rio and the semi-finals at the Brasil Open in Sao Paulo, and on Monday 4 March 2019, his ATP Ranking was No. 94. “It just feels really good to finally get there,” Casper said.

He is No. 76 this week, and he is projected to rise to at least No. 67, which would be a new career-high, by qualifying and making the second round in Rome. Casper should keep climbing as well as he has only 166 points to defend until October, and he’ll spend the next month on clay, his favourite surface and where he’s made his best runs.

“I think it just fits my game a bit better… I feel like I can do a lot with my forehand and play heavy spin forehands and this kind of stuff that is more effective on clay than on hard court,” Casper said.

The current #NextGenATP class, led by Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovalov of Canada and American Frances Tiafoe, features big hitters throughout the group. But Casper sees an opening for someone like him. “I think the NextGen group needs a bit of a clay-court player so maybe I can be that one,” he said.

Who’s Ruud Chasing? View The ATP Race To Milan

He is currently in sixth place in the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players who compete in Milan from 5-9 November, with the final spot reserved for a wild card.

“I think it’s a fun concept and a great chance for new young players to show their level and compete against each other. I think we’re all good friends among the NextGen players. Of course, we’re competitors, but we’re also getting along,” Casper said. “It’s a great atmosphere… So I would really, really enjoy playing there.”

The 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals could be the next big achievement in Casper’s constantly-evolving tennis journey.