By
Reuters
Published 15/05/2021 at 12:47 GMT
Lorenzo Sonego beat world number seven Russian Andrey Rublev on Saturday, 3-6 6-4 6-3, and will meet Novak Djokovic in the Italian Open semi-finals.
Following his wins over U.S. Open winner Dominic Thiem and former world number six Gael Monfils in previous rounds, the 26-year-old Sonego becomes the first local man in the semi-finals of the Masters 1000 event since Filippo Volandri in 2007.
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"(This is) my favourite tournament in the world. I'm with my people here," Sonego said. "I am so happy for this."
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The 33rd-ranked Italian will have loud support from the stands when he returns to the court for his semi-final later on Saturday against top seed Novak Djokovic.
The Serbian world No. 1 was trailing 6-4 2-1 against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas when the match was halted by rain on Friday but rallied to a 4-6 7-5 7-5 win on Saturday.
Djokovic's match on Friday was suspended twice but he raised his game at crunch moments to twice come back from a break down in the deciding set on his way to the semi-finals for the eighth straight year.
Second seed Rafa Nadal will compete against big-serving American Reilly Opelka in the other semi-final.
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