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Italian Fabio Fognini earned his biggest win of the season Wednesday evening when he defeated Scot Andy Murray at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

It has been a struggle to begin 2023 for the former Top 10 star, who arrived at the Foro Italico with a 2-8 tour-level record. But the wild card thrilled the Rome crowd with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory to reach the second round after two hours and 54 minutes.

The veterans entered the match having split their first eight ATP Head2Head clashes. This was their first meeting since 2019 in Shanghai, where Fognini won a final-set tie-break. They played at the Foro Italico in 2017, when Murray was the No. 1 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. Fognini emerged victorious in straight sets on that occasion.

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The Rome ATP Masters 1000 event has not always been Fognini’s best tournament (14-15 record), but he has often found magic on home soil against Murray, whom he has defeated in all three of their showdowns in Italy.

“I can’t go anywhere without my pizza, you can count on that!”

There is no second guessing what Alex de Minaur’s favourite food is. The 24-year-old even enjoys a pepperoni pizza alongside pasta on a match day, he revealed to ATP Uncovered in the newest edition of the ‘What I Eat’ series.

“Pizza is the secret to the speed!” De Minaur said. “Big pepperoni pizza for me, I just like meat too much.”

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The Australian also shared what foods he indulges in on those beloved ‘cheat days’, when De Minaur does not mind racking up calories.

Stan Wawrinka is up and running at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia.

Making his 18th appearance in Rome, the former World No. 3 moved past Ilya Ivashka 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday at the ATP Masters 1000 event to reach the second round for the 13th time.

The 38-year-old was in control throughout the 78-minute clash on Center Court. The Swiss took large cuts at the ball off both wings to strike 26 winners and saved the one break point he faced to earn his 12th tour-level win of the season.

"I was ready for it. I am playing well. It was a good first match and I am really happy to get through again," Wawrinka said. "I have been working hard to get to this level. This year I am playing much better, but I need to win more matches. That is what I am missing a bit, the confidence to win more matches. But in general the level is great."

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Hyeon Chung was once one of the most promising young talents on the ATP Tour. The inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals champion in 2017, the South Korean has struggled for several years with injuries.

But the 26-year-old is on the road back. Chung played his first singles match in two and a half years two weeks ago at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Seoul and was back in action on Tuesday in Busan at the Head Busan Open.

The former World No. 19 lost his return match to Jordan Thompson in straight sets, but showed signs of improvement in a three-set loss Tuesday to Yasutaka Uchiyama.

“It is still a shame that I did not win. I played my best [on] every point… I played for more than two hours, so I am satisfied with the way that I played today,” Chung said in answers provided by tournament staff. “For my part, I would like to give myself credit for finishing the match without any injuries or soreness, and last but not least, I have given all I had for each point.”

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Jannik Sinner enters the Internazionali BNL d'Italia at fifth in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, having reached the quarter-finals or better at seven of his eight events this season. He won his seventh tour-level title in Montpellier and also reached the finals in Miami and Rotterdam, in addition to a semi-final run in Indian Wells.

Despite pulling out of Barcelona ahead of the quarter-finals due to illness and missing Madrid the following week, Sinner enters Rome at full health and in full confidence. He is at a career-high Pepperstone ATP Ranking of No. 8, first achieved on 10 April.

"I'm very good, to be honest," he said of his physical conditioning, speaking with ATP Media. "I took a little bit of time off after some very long tournaments, which is a good sign, I made a lot of good [results]. The start of the season was good and I'm happy to be back here, especially in Rome. It's a special tournament for all Italians and also obviously for me. Physically, we worked very hard for one week now and I'm happy to be here."

The 21-year-old reached the Rome quarter-finals for the first time last season but enters this year's event with even loftier goals, having already compiled a 12-3 record across the first three ATP Masters 1000 of the season.

"I have a different mindset now," he explained. "I'm not scared to say that I can win big, big matches. I'm here, I can do it... But in another way, you have to have the right respect for every single player. Every player is so tough. Also emotion-wise, it's sometimes not easy. But if I go in my way, I want to push myself to the limits because I know that, especially there, I can show some very good tennis."

If you were stuck on an island with an ATP Tour player, who would you pick and why?

Three-time major champion Andy Murray has a couple requirements, he revealed to ATP Uncovered in the newest edition of our Fan Questions series.

“I would need someone resourceful to get me off the island,” Murray said. “But also, I’d want someone to keep me entertained.”

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What music has the 35-year-old been listening to lately? You may be surprised to learn he’s been enjoying a song from Disney’s movie Zootopia.

Daniil Medvedev has labeled himself a ‘hard-court specialist’, but that doesn’t mean the World No. 3 isn’t looking for answers to develop his game on clay.

Known for his flat groundstrokes and all-court coverage, the 6’6” Medvedev moves exceptionally well. But a few challenges arise when it comes to the red dirt, specifically the unique movement. Heading into the ATP Masters 1000 event in Rome, Medvedev has been critiquing his game to better suit the clay.

The 27-year-old also revealed a strategy he implements when competing on the surface.

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“[Playing with] some more spin,” Medvedev said in his pre-tournament press conference. “Especially the sliding, I think the sliding was always a problem [for me]. After Madrid, after I lost, a couple days I practised there, I tried to focus on the sliding, on the movement. I felt like I improved in these couple of days.”

Novak Djokovic has arrived at the Foro Italico, where he is ready to pursue a seventh Internazionali BNL d'Italia title.

The Serbian star is making his 17th appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 event and has never fallen short of the quarter-finals. The 35-year-old has earned a 64-10 record in the Italian capital, where he has lifted the trophy or finished runner-up 12 times.

Djokovic practised with leading Italian favourite Jannik Sinner on Monday.

Photo Credit: FOTO ARCHIVIO FITP
Fans came out in force to watch their session. Djokovic and Sinner will meet in the semi-finals if they both advance that far in the tournament.

Hometown Hero x Defending Champ ?

Sinner and Djokovic bring the heat in practice?@InteBNLdItalia | #IBI23 pic.twitter.com/J8Q8za8GaX

It has been a memorable couple of days for Carlos Alcaraz. After winning his fourth ATP Masters 1000 title on Sunday at the Mutua Madrid Open, the Spaniard met a sports icon on Monday: Lionel Messi.

Both stars were in Paris for the Laureus World Sports Awards, where Alcaraz won the Breakthrough of the Year Award and Messi was named World Sportsman of the Year.

While on the red carpet for the awards ceremony, Alcaraz was asked about being around Messi, who led Argentina to World Cup glory last year.

“It’s crazy. I’ve never met him before,” Alcaraz said. “It’s crazy to see him here metres from me. It’s crazy, it’s crazy, honestly.”

When Carlos met Leo ? Can’t get enough of this moment!@LaureusSport | #Laureus23 | #OnlyAtLaureus | @carlosalcaraz pic.twitter.com/XLyutV0gmw

Andy Murray won the Open Aix Provence Credit Agricole on Sunday, marking his first ATP Challenger Tour title since 2005 in Binghamton. It was a special moment for the Scot, who with the victory climbed to No. 42 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, his best mark since undergoing hip resurfacing in 2019.

After clinching his triumph, the former World No. 1 enjoyed a special moment with his team including his mother, Judy Murray, who flew to France Sunday morning on a £14.99 ticket.

???#ATPChallenger | @JudyMurray pic.twitter.com/gbcg0KXWIp

Murray knew she could not just turn up without telling Andy without throwing off his preparation, so she gave him a call after he won his semi-final on Saturday.

“I said, 'Look, I can get a flight and I'm going to come across'. The thing for him and Jamie for that matter is that I'm so used to traveling around the world and having to adapt travel arrangements at the last minute because of all my years on the junior and the women's tour and the men's tour,” Murray said. “So nothing fazes me really with travel. They know that I am perfectly capable of looking after myself. I can contact the tournament and say, 'Could you pick me up and whatever, whatever.' So they don't need to bother about me. They know I'll find a way.”

The world’s biggest stars travel to Rome this week for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the season’s third and final clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event. The tournament was expanded to a 12-day event this year.

Carlos Alcaraz brings plenty of momentum to the Foro Italico after emerging victorious in Barcelona and Madrid, but World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and other stars in the draw will try to halt the Spaniard’s hot streak.

ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to watch in Rome.

1) Alcaraz Making Debut: The hottest player on the circuit will make his Rome debut. Alcaraz has competed in Italy before, having won the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in 2021, but this will be his first ATP Tour action in the country outside of the event. The Spaniard is fresh off successful title defences in Barcelona and Madrid and will try to secure his fifth Masters 1000 title.

2) Djokovic Back In Action: Six-time Internazionali BNL d’Italia champion Djokovic returns to action for the first time since Banja Luka. The Serbian has suffered early losses in each of his two clay-court tournaments this year (2-2 record), but will be confident in Rome, where he is set for his 17th consecutive appearance and where he has never lost before the quarter-finals. Last year, he captured his 1,000th tour-level victory at the event in the semi-finals against Casper Ruud.

Carlos Alcaraz won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award, it was announced Monday evening at a ceremony in Paris.

Alcaraz is the fourth ATP Tour player to earn the honour after Marat Safin (2001), Rafael Nadal (2006) and Andy Murray (2013). It is the second consecutive year a tennis player has won the award after Emma Raducanu did so in 2022.

? @carlosalcaraz wins the 2023 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award

The 20-year-old announced himself to the tennis world in stunning fashion in 2022, winning his first Grand Slam at the @usopen & becoming the youngest world No. 1 @atptour rankings history #Laureus23 pic.twitter.com/oari17bTUx

Last year was a historic one for Alcaraz, who captured his first two ATP Masters 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid, lifted his maiden major trophy at the US Open and became the youngest World No. 1 in the history of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings (since 1973). The Spaniard capped it off by becoming the youngest year-end ATP No. 1 presented by Pepperstone.

Other nominees for the award were fellow tennis player Elena Rybakina, the Morocco men’s football team, figure skater Nathan Chen and track and field star Tobi Amusan.

Novak Djokovic will face a tough opening test in his return to action at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he is a six-time champion.

The top seed will begin the season’s final clay-court ATP Masters 1000 event against #NextGenATP Frenchman Luca Van Assche or in-form Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry. In his most recent tournament, Djokovic was pushed to three sets by 18-year-old Van Assche, who is the only teen in the Top 100 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. The Serbian needed two hours and 39 minutes to battle through that match.

If Etcheverry is Djokovic’s opponent, the 23-year-old will carry confidence from reaching his first two ATP Tour finals earlier this year. Both of those runs came on clay, in Santiago and Houston. Grigor Dimitrov, the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion, or former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka could be waiting for Djokovic in the third round.

Here is the official @atptour men's singles main draw

Make your predictions down here??#IBI23 pic.twitter.com/1kOxnmUbUJ

There is plenty of Masters 1000 experience in Djokovic’s quarter of the draw, where 2021 Indian Wells titlist Cameron Norrie and 2022 Paris champion Holger Rune will look to make their mark. Seventh seed Rune, a potential quarter-final foe for Djokovic, defeated the Serbian in the final of last year’s Rolex Paris Masters. 

The Rolex Shanghai Masters is set to celebrate the return of ATP Masters 1000 tennis to China for the first time since 2019 this October with an expanded 12-day tournament and the presence of Roger Federer.

With main-draw action to be played 4-15 October at the unique QiZhong Tennis Centre, the expanded 96 singles draw will be played across ‘Golden Week’ that includes China’s National Holiday. Federer, a two-time former champion, will return as a celebrated guest with the title of Icon Athlete of the Rolex Shanghai Masters.

In addition to featuring the world’s greatest players including Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, defending champion Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas, the tournament will showcase China’s own fast-rising stars Zhang Zhizhen, Wu Yibing and Shang Juncheng.

The event will also host the ITF J100 international youth tennis tournament, covering men's and women's singles and doubles. This is also the first time that the Rolex Shanghai Masters has simultaneously held an international youth tournament which gives tennis fans a glimpse into the future.

A digital service for fans will be a focus of this year’s tournament. For the first time, electronic ticketing with real-time registration, mobile ordering, intelligent customer service, and other digital services will be introduced to provide fans with convenient experiences.

Making Swiss tennis history isn’t easy.

After all, 20-time major champion Roger Federer and former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka have etched their names into almost every record book for their home country.

But Dominic Stricker managed to carve out a niche place in the record books by winning last week’s ATP Challenger Tour event in Prague. The lefty is the only Swiss player to win five Challenger titles before his 21st birthday.

The #NextGenATP star defeated Sebastian Ofner in the final 7-6(7), 6-3 to capture the Advantage Cars Prague Open by Moneta. In the first-set tie-break, the 20-year-old Stricker fought back from 2/6 and saved five set points.

Stricker, who also claimed the Rovereto Challenger in February, climbs to No. 115 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, just four spots shy of tying his career-high.

A thrilling 2023 Mutua Madrid Open saw Carlos Alcaraz successfully defend his title, although the Spaniard needed three sets to hold off lucky loser Jan-Lennard Struff in the championship match. Struff is one of a number of stars who made a big jump in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result of their exploits at the clay-court ATP Masters 1000.

ATPTour.com looks at the movers of the week in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as of 8 May 2023.

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No. 28 Jan-Lennard Struff, +37 (Career High)
The big-hitting German made history in Madrid by becoming the first lucky loser to reach the final at an ATP Masters 1000, and he has jumped 37 spots to a career-high No. 28 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as a result. After falling to Aslan Karatsev in qualifying, Struff made full use of his second chance in the Spanish capital, battling to five three-set victories before pushing Alcaraz the distance in the championship match.

No. 16 Borna Coric, +4
The 26-year-old Coric reached his maiden Madrid semi-final, ousting 12th seed Hubert Hurkacz and home favourite Alejandro Davidovich Fokina en route. Although Alcaraz proved too strong in the final four, Coric has risen four spots to No. 16 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, his highest position since October 2010 and just four places shy of his career high.

Throughout the season the world’s best tennis players battle each week to become champion. From continent to continent and surface to surface, they work hard to earn glory, with everyone pursuing a place at the Nitto ATP Finals at the end of the year. This year's season finale will be played in Turin from 12-19 November.

We take a look at all the champions of 2023.

United Cup, Australia - United States
In the first edition of the United Cup, the mixed teams event played across Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, the United States prevailed, led by Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys.

Adelaide International 1, Adelaide - Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic made a quick start to his season in Adelaide. During his semi-final victory against Daniil Medvedev, he suffered an injury scare. The next day he managed that to save championship point and defeat Sebastian Korda 6-7(8), 7-6(3), 6-4 for his first trophy of 2022.

Tata Open Maharashtra, Pune - Tallon Griekspoor
The Pune championship match featured two first-time finalists in Tallon Griekspoor and Benjamin Bonzi. It was the Dutchman Griekspoor who entered the winners’ circle with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 triumph at the Indian ATP 250.

Take time away to prepare. Relentlessly come forward to pressure. Get under your opponent’s skin.

Carlos Alcaraz survived a blistering attack from Jan-Lennard Stuff to win the Mutua Madrid Open final 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Sunday with something resembling his B or C-level game. It certainly wasn’t his A game, as Struff swarmed the net and mentally rattled the 20-year-old’s cage. But it’s a testament to the Spaniard’s mental toughness that he was made to feel so uncomfortable on the court and still found a way to be first over the finish line.

The match was very much dictated by Struff, who came to the net a staggering 52 times in three sets, winning 33 points up front (63 per cent). That was vastly superior to the German’s win percentage at the back of the court, which ended up at just 43 per cent (32/75).

Struff’s harrowing forays forward created discomfort and despair at times for Alcaraz. Struff turned the Magic Box into a pressure cooker and was on a roll early in the third set, holding break point on Alcaraz’s serve at 1-1, Ad out. Alcaraz saved break point and won seven of the next nine points to break Struff and surge to a 3-1 lead in the deciding set. That sequence proved to be the most pivotal in the final.

Alcaraz Serve Direction
Alcaraz served primarily to Struff’s backhand return, making the German hit 70 per cent (58/83) backhand returns for the match. That was mainly due to Struff successfully crushing his forehand return at the start of the match. Struff’s initial seven forehand returns in Set One produced one return winner and forced four forehand Serve +1 errors from Alcaraz. Alcaraz cleverly moved the battle to the backhand return, where he extracted 10 return errors in Set 1, five in Set 2, and critically, 10 again in the Set 3.

Twelve days ago, Jan-Lennard Struff lost against Aslan Karatsev in the final round of qualifying at the Mutua Madrid Open. After receiving a lucky loser spot, the German more than grabbed his chance, becoming the first lucky loser to reach the final at an ATP Masters 1000.

The German is proud of his remarkable run in the Spanish capital despite falling in the final against Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.

“It's been an incredible journey from lucky loser to be in the final [and] runner-up here,” Struff said. “I hope that it gives me a lot of push for in the next weeks and months. It was a best-career achievement so far.”

“Of course I wanted to go all the way to win today, but I would definitely say if someone told me two weeks ago you're going to play the finals, I would take it,” Struff later added. “I'm proud of the way I played. I am proud of the way I presented myself today.”

Struff upset Stefanos Tsitsipas and earned a revenge win against Karatsev in the Spanish capital after falling against the 29-year-old in qualifying. Despite playing six three-set matches en route to the championship match, the 33-year-old was pleased with how his body held up against Alcaraz.

Carlos Alcaraz made history on Sunday when he captured the Mutua Madrid Open title. The Spaniard became the sixth-youngest player to reach 10 tour-level titles in the Open Era.

The 20-year-old, whose birthday was Friday, was only beaten to the mark by five 19-year-olds: Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Rafael Nadal, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

Quickest To 10 Tour-Level Titles (Open Era)

Alcaraz was also champion at the 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals, which does not count towards players’ tour-level trophy collection.