Thiago Monteiro knocked out Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic this Sunday in the third round of the Rome Masters 1,000in a 3-set match that ended after almost 3 hours with scores of 6-2, 4-6 and 7-6 (6).
The Brazilian, 106th in the world, is one of the sensations in Rome. After passing the preliminary phase he eliminated Gael Monfils, number 38; then he defeated Australian Jordan Thompson, 32nd favorite; and now in the third round with Kecmanovic, number 58, who came after eliminating the Norwegian Casper Ruud, semifinalist of the last edition and one of the top favorites to fight the Serbian Novak Djokovic for the title.
And in all his matches, where in theory he was not the favorite, he lost only one set, against Kecmanovic, who demanded more despite the big difference in the first set.
Already in the second, the Serbian showed his talent and was unable to get rid of Ruud by chance. He won the set and extended the match into the third set, which lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes in an all-or-nothing game in which Monteiro saved a match point before making good on the only one he had.
In the round of 16, the Brazilian will face the winner of the duel between the American Ben Shelton (14) and the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang (56).
The other qualifier for the round of 16 of the morning session is the Portuguese Nuno Borges (53)who suffered more than expected to eliminate Italian Francesco Passaro (240) by 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, and will face the winner of the clash between German Alexander Zverev (5) and the Italian Luciano Dardieri ( 54).
Source: La Verdad
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