Four Aussies into Rome Masters round two

After Jason Kubler defeated Swiss player Marc-Andrea Huesler in round one at the Rome Masters 1000 we saw four Australians book spots in the second round.

Kubler won his match 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2.

Earlier Alexei Popyrin had defeated fellow Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-2, 7-6(5), and Thanasi Kokkinakis advanced after Jaume Munar retired at 4-2 with a lower back issue.

As the no. 17 seed, Alex de Minaur had already advanced to the second round with a bye.

In round two Popyin and Kokkinakis face tough assignments as they play top-ten seeds. Popyin is drawn against no. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime with Kokkinakis taking on no. 8 seed Jannik Sinner.

Popyrin will be looking to repeat his upset at the Adelaide tournament when he defeated Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(5) at the start of the season, that was their only meeting to date.

Kokkinakis is 0-2 in his head-to-head with Sinner. The most recent match saw Sinner defeat Kokkinakis in his hometown during the Adelaide tournament.

de Minaur will play Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in his first match at the tournment, a round two match.

The head-to-head favours de Minaur 2-1 however Fucsovics defeated the Australian 6-4, 6-2 at the same stage in Indian Wells earlier this year.

Kubler also plays a seeded player in round two. He is drawn to play no. 31 seed Bernabe Zapata Miralles from Spain. This is the first meeting.

Also see De Minaur: ‘Pizza Is The Secret To Speed’ over at the ATP Tour website.

“I can’t go anywhere without my pizza, you can count on that!”