Britain's Cameron Norrie falls to straight-sets Italian Open defeat, as Stefanos Tsitsipas books last 16 place in Rome; Earlier, Alex de Minaur came from set down to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime; Watch continued coverage of the Italian Open live on Sky Sports Tennis
Monday 13 May 2024 15:39, UK
Cameron Norrie is out of the Italian Open after Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas cruised to a 6-2 7-6 (7-1) victory in Rome to book his place in the last 16.
Tsitsipas proved far superior in the opening set, breaking Britain's Norrie twice en route to a rapid set victory filled with exquisite drop-shots, rocket serves and powerful forehand winners.
The second set saw the Greek move a break up early too, but to Norrie's credit he dug deep to break back and force a tie-break, recovering from 0-30 down at 5-5.
The tie-break was even more one-sided than the rest of the contest, however, as Tsitsipas streaked out to 5-0, and then clinched a 7-1 victory via a forehand winner.
Tsitsipas will face Australian Alex de Minaur for a place in the Italian Open quarter-finals, after the Aussie came from a set down to beat Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7 6-4 6-4 earlier on Monday.
World No 6 Andrey Rublev - Madrid Open champion earlier this month - suffered a surprise exit to French qualifier Alexandre Muller 3-6 6-3 6-2.
The USA's Tommy Paul also made it through, beating Germany's Dominik Koepfer in straight sets 6-4 6-3.
Climate protesters forced two matches to be suspended on Monday, including Madison Keys' last-16 win against Sorana Cirstea on the women's side of the draw.
Two members of environmental protest group Ultima Generazione ran on to the court wearing orange vests and threw confetti, while other activists glued themselves to the stands.
A statement on the Italian Open website read: "With the public very angry against the demonstrators, the police officers and firefighters also arrived.
"One of the demonstrators had moved onto the lawn under the big screen of (Court) Pietrangeli. He was taken away by the police."
Play was also interrupted by protestors on Court 12, where Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin were playing a second-round doubles match against Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic.
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