Bashing Marton Fucsovics in two sets (6-2, 6-3 the final score after an hour and 15 minutes of play), Novak Djokovic earned qualification to the quarterfinals of the Geneva tournament, thus giving himself his first success of the season on clay after disappointing eliminations against Alejandro Tabilo in Monte Carlo and Matteo Arnaldi in Madrid.

It is precisely Arnaldi who will be Nole&#8217s opponent in the next round, given the Italian&#8217s success against Fabian Maroszan in his own round of 16. Djokovic, speaking on the sidelines of his success against Fucsovics, didn&#8217t beat around the bush too much: “I will prepare as I do for all matches – he said -, but I know that compared to today I will have to change something from a tactical point of view. I played in Madrid against Arnaldi and it did not go well, I will do everything to get a different result”.

“Today“Today&#8220s is my first win on clay, I finally broke the ice – Djokovic then sentenced -It’s complicated to play on this surface, you have to ask a lot from your serve: luckily today it was effective and made my job easier. I am very focused and satisfied with my performance”.

Novak Djokovic is in Geneva to prepare as best he can for his 21st participation in Roland Garros, a tournament he has won three times: first in 2016, overcoming Andy Murray (his coach from late November 2024 until a few days ago) in four sets, second in 2021 by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets, and third in 2023 by defeating Casper Ruud in three fractions. In Paris, Nole also won Olympic gold, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final played on August 4, 2024.

That of Castelnovo ne’ Monti was a “red circle” stage for Tom Pidcock, who even on the eve of the race had made no secret of the fact that he was aiming right for the Reggio Emilia Apennines to win the stage. Things turned out differently, however, and Richard Carapaz’s action proved decisive, with Pidcock having to settle for fourth place at the finish.

“It was one of those days when we thought it might be a good day for a breakaway – said Pidcock, without hiding his disappointment, on the sidelines of the fraction run on Wednesday – but in the end it turned into a day with the men fighting for the overall classification as protagonists: it was very tough”.

“I asked Mark and Damo (Donovan and Hawson, his teammates at Q36.5) to pull and see what would come out of it– added the British rider -, but Carapaz&#8217s attack was really impressive, to be honest. I just have to keep seeing what happens, day after day, and take what comes”.

A 1999 class, Thomas ‘Tom’ Pidcock is in his first season at Q36.5, after four years at Ineos. This season he won the AlUla Tour, also winning two stages, as well as a stage at the Vuelta a Andalucia, a race that saw him finish third overall 26″ behind the winner, Pavel Sivakov.

At the end of a very hard battle that lasted nearly three hours, Luciano Darderi earned a place among the top eight at the Hamburg tournament, an ATP 500 that so many of the players are using as a platform to prepare for Roland Garros. In the quarters the Italian-Argentine will face Andrey Rublev, while Alexander Zverev, who was surprised by Frenchman Alexandre Muller, will not be there.

The match between Darderi and Nakashima does not start in the best way for the Villa Gesell native, who goes down by three games at 5-2. From there, however, a spectacular comeback begins, with five games won in a row leading him to win the first set 7-5. The second fraction, full of breaks and counterbreaks despite its balance, ended in a tie-break, where Nakashima prevailed 9-7 after nullifying three match points, but in the third Darderi took off from 2-2 down, winning four games in a row and clinching the victory. 7-5, 6(7)-7, 6-2 was the final result.

Zverev also gets off to a bad start against Muller, but unlike Darderi he struggles to get back on his feet: the first set ends 6-3 for the Frenchman, Sascha seems to put things back on track in the second fraction winning it 6-4 but in the third and decisive set, decided at the tie-break, Muller is more lucid in the decisive moments and brings home the qualification to the quarterfinals: 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) the score that goes into the archives.

Two Italians will therefore be present in the quarterfinals of the Hamburg tournament: Luciano Darderi will meet Andrey Rublev, who executed Justin Engel in the round of 16, while Flavio Cobolli, who defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in his round of 16 match, will face another Spaniard, Roberto Bautista-Agut, who beat Frances Tiafoe. With the latter and Zverev eliminated, it is now Rublev who is the highest seed still in the running, with number 3 on the scoreboard.