In what could be his last trip to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Fabio Fognini treated the home crowd to at least one more victory on Wednesday night.
And it was a big one.
The marquee matchup of the entire first round saw Fognini go up against familiar foe Andy Murray, with an entertaining head-to-head history all tied up at four wins apiece. It’s now 5-4 in favor of Fognini following the Italian’s 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win. He broke right away in the deciding set and maintained his advantage the entire way to advance after two hours and 54 minutes.
“For sure I’m happy because coming back from injury is never easy, especially at our age,” Fognini commented. “Winning here in Rome against a really big player like Andy, I’m happy. Let’s see how I recover, but I just want to enjoy this night going home with this victory…. These kinds of matches give me a lot of emotions and really good memories.”
As Fognini mentioned, age is a factor for him and for Murray. Both are 35 years and–especially in the Scot’s case–have dealt with all kinds of injuries.
Whereas Murray is back up to 42nd in the rankings thanks in part to a Challenger title last week in Aix-en-Provence, Fognini is a dreadful 3-8 at the ATP level in 2023 and struggling down at No. 130 in the world. Suddenly, though, he has some momentum heading into a second-round matchup with Miomir Kecmanovic.
nice one, Fog
That was quick!! Match just ended!