View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the following matches Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia & vote for who you think will win!
Nadal v Sock | Djokovic vs Bautista Agut | Nishikori v Del Potro | Fognini v Zverev

 The third round on Thursday features eight of the Top 9 seeds with a blockbuster line-up with No. 2 Novak Djokovic, No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, No. 4 and seven-time champion Rafael Nadal leading the way. Overall 11 of the Top 16 seeds are remaining. In addition, three Americans are in the third round in Rome for the first time since 2002 with No. 13 seed Jack Sock and unseeded John Isner and Sam Querrey. In 2002, Andre Agassi won the title, Andy Roddick reached the SFs and James Blake advanced to the QFs.

In the opening match on Centrale, top Italian Fabio Fognini takes on #NextGenATP star Alexander Zverev for the first time. Fognini is coming off his biggest career win over No. 1 Andy Murray on Tuesday night and he is trying to become the first Italian to reach the quarter-finals in Rome since Andreas Seppi in 2012. The 20-year-old Zverev leads the Emirates ATP Race to Milan and he is aiming to reach his third ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final of the season (Miami, Madrid).

In the third match on, Roberto Bautista Agut plays Djokovic, who has won five of the previous six meetings, including both clay contests last year at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid and Roland Garros. The Spaniard won the last encounter in the semi-finals at ATP Masters 1000 Shanghai last October. Bautista Agut is 6-33 vs. Top 10 opponents with all six wins coming on hard courts. He is 0-9 on clay vs. Top 10 foes. Four-time champion Djokovic is trying to reach the quarter-finals in Rome for the 11th straight year.

In the evening session, seven-time champion Nadal brings a 3-0 head-to-head record against top American Sock. Nadal comes in with a 16-match winning streak and he posted his 50th career win in Rome on Wednesday as countryman Nicolas Almagro retired with a left knee injury. The 30-year-old Spaniard has a 13-0 record against Americans on clay. Sock is 6-18 lifetime against Top 10 opponents and this is only the second time he’s facing a Top 10 player on clay. He lost to Nadal in the 4R at 2015 Roland Garros. Sock is trying to become the first American to reach the quarter-finals in Rome since Roddick (SFs) and Blake (QFs) in 2008.

In the opening match on Next Gen Arena, No. 9 seed David Goffin and No. 6 Marin Cilic square off for the fifth time. Goffin won three of the four meetings last year. Goffin is looking to reach the quarter-finals for the third straight year and Cilic for the first time since 2011. In the next match on No. 12 Tomas Berdych and No. 5 Milos Raonic battle it out. The Canadian leads the series 4-2 and Berdych won the only previous clay meeting at 2015 ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo. In the final match on, the past two Acapulco champions, No. 8 seed Dominic Thiem and Querrey meet for the third time (tied 1-1). Their previous meetings came in Acapulco in 2016-17.

On Pietrangeli, Wawrinka looks to even his record (1-2) against big-serving Isner, who has fired 53 aces in his first two wins. In the next match, No. 7 seed Kei Nishikori plays Juan Martin del Potro, who owns a 4-1 head-to-head record against the Japanese star. The Argentine is 0-4 against Top 10 opponents this season after going 6-4 last year. His last Top 10 win on clay came at 2012 Roland Garros (d. No. 7 Berdych in 4R, l. to No. 3 Federer in QFs).

View Thursday schedule 

Third seed Stan Wawrinka earned revenge on Benoit Paire on Wednesday, beating the Frenchman 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The Swiss No. 1 had fallen to the 28-year-old Paire in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open last week.

But Wawrinka locked down in decider of their second-round match in Rome, winning 71 per cent of his service points and not facing a break point. He converted his lone break point at 1-0.

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays

Wawrinka improves to 8-3 against Paire in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, and the victory may boost the 32 year old’s confidence as he looks to return to the Rome title match (2008) and find his footing on the clay. Before falling in the second round in Madrid, the Lausanne native reached the third round at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters (l. to Cuevas).

Wawrinka, who improved to 22-11 in Rome, will meet American John Isner in the third round. The 6’10” Isner leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 2-1, but the two haven’t faced off since 2011.

Dominic Thiem continued his outstanding clay-court season on Wednesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, defeating Pablo Cuevas for the second time in less than a week, 7-6(4), 6-4, en route to the round of 16.

The Austrian also scored a straight-sets win over Cuevas in the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open. Thiem takes the lead in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry over Cuevas 2-1, and improves to 15-3 on clay in 2017. He took the title this February in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta) and finished runner-up in Barcelona and Madrid (both l. to Nadal).

“I’m feeling a little bit [tired], but I have very good confidence right now. The match was good and it was a very tough opponent. I’m really happy that I won it again,” said Thiem. “The serve was more important in Madrid because of the altitude. I didn’t face a break point, and it was also way more difficult to break him. There were more long rallies today and the game was decided more from the baseline.”

Cuevas served for the opening set at 5-4, but Thiem fought back to ultimately prevail in the tie-break. The eighth seed secured the lone break of the second set at 3-3 before advancing in one hour and 43 minutes.

Standing between Thiem and a place in the quarter-finals is Sam Querrey, who defeated qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-3. Thiem is even with Querrey in their FedEx ATP Head2Head Series 1-1, with both matches coming in Acapulco. The American won their most recent meeting this March. 

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays

Ivan Dodig and Marcel Granollers didn’t put a foot wrong on Wednesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, not facing a break point as they reached the quarter-finals 6-1, 6-4 over Nikola Mektic and Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

The eighth seeds will look to reach their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final of 2017 after going 0-3 in their previous quarter-final appearances (Miami, Monte-Carlo, Madrid). Dodig/Granollers will next play third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares or Americans John Isner and Jack Sock.

In first-round matches, Joao Sousa and Fernando Verdasco defeated Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-7(6), 6-4, 10-6. Sousa/Verdasco will face top seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers for a place in the last eight.

Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic also won their opening round over Treat Huey and Michael Venus 6-2, 3-6, 10-6. The Austrian-Croatian duo square off Thursday against sixth seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays

Seventh seed Kei Nishikori overcame fellow baseliner David Ferrer for the second time in as many weeks on Wednesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Nishikori showed few signs of the right wrist pain that had forced his withdrawal from last week’s Mutua Madrid Open in a 7-5, 6-2 second-round victory over 2010 finalist Ferrer, who is just one of 13 players in ATP World Tour history to record 700 match wins.

The Japanese star, who broke Ferrer’s serve five times in the 81-minute win, is now 18-6 on the season that includes runner-up finishes in Brisbane (l. to Dimitrov) and Buenos Aires (l. to Dolgopolov). Nishikori awaits the winner of Kyle Edmund and former World No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro, who play later today. Del Potro leads Nishikori 4-1, but the Florida-based Japanese did win their October 2016 meeting in Basel.

Listen To Tennis Radio

 Watch Live On TennisTV

 Watch Full Match Replays