Home favourite Jannik Sinner continued his quest for a maiden Italian Open crown by beating Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets in the last 16. (More Tennis News)
Sinner needed two hours and 18 minutes to book his place in the quarter-finals in Rome, eventually prevailing 7-6 (7-2) 6-3 against a stubborn opponent.
Sinner got the upper hand in the opening set with a fifth-game break, though Cerundolo refused to go away quietly, converting the fifth break point he generated in a gruelling game six.
The set stayed on serve from there with a tie-break required, and after losing his first point on serve, Sinner went through the gears to take the advantage.
Cerundolo failed to beat the net with a delicate drop-shot on Sinner's first set point, and the Italian carried that momentum into the second set.
Back-to-back breaks in games four and six put him 5-1 up and cruising towards the quarter-finals, only for Cerundolo to reel off back-to-back games and claw his way back into it.
However, Sinner held his nerve in another gruelling game, with a big serve proving unreturnable for Cerundolo on his fourth match point.
Second seed Alexander Zverev will join Sinner in the last eight following a 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 triumph over Arthur Fils.
The players shared four breaks of serve equally in a highly competitive first set, with the defending champion showing his class in a tie-break.
The second set was far more routine for Zverev, who reeled off three straight breaks of serve to set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with Lorenzo Musetti.
Data debrief: Sinner's half-century
This was Sinner's 50th victory as the ATP's top-ranked player, in just his 53rd outing as the world number one.
Since the ATP rankings were first published in 1973, that is the joint-fewest matches required to reach 50 wins as the world number one, along with Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg.
The 23-year-old has also become the third-youngest player in the Open Era to win his first 10 ATP-level matches in consecutive seasons, older only than Jim Courier (1992-93) and Roger Federer (2004-05).
