Rom
Krawietz/Pütz at the Italian Open: Successful start, bitter end

The German tennis doubles pairing of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz, who were ranked 13th in the doubles world rankings and 6th at this ATP Masters, got off to a successful start in the first round of the Italian Open in Rome by defeating the Australian duo of Popyrin/de Minaur 5:7, 6:3, 10:1 in a hard-fought match. Despite initial difficulties against the Australians, the pair fought back and secured their place in the round of 16.
However, their run came to an end in round two on Sunday, when they lost 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 7-10 to the two Argentinian singles specialists Francisco Cerundolo and Tomas Etcheverry in the round of 16 after an extremely close match lasting two hours and twelve minutes.
The two South Americans will now face Alexander Bublik from Kazakhstan and Ben Shelton from the USA in the quarter-finals of this 1000-category event. The latter decided their round of 16 match against the German number one Alexander Zverev and the Brazilian Marcelo Melo.