Musetti, playing in front of a passionate Italian crowd, saved multiple set points and captured the opener in a tense tiebreak. Zverev’s visible irritation grew in the second set, with his outburst toward the umpire drawing attention and potentially affecting his focus during critical moments.

The world No. 1 was rusty on his first match back after three months away. His Italian Open draw means he cannot afford to be so for long.

Carlos Alcaraz’s Rome rollercoaster will continue into the semi-finals at the Italian Open with a 6-4 6-4 win over Jack Draper.

In the women's draw, Coco Gauff will be hoping to follow up her thumping win over Raducanu by beating Mirra Andreeva, while Aryna Sabalenka faces a similarly tricky test against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are out of the Italian Open women's doubles tournament after a 6-2, 4-6, 11-9 quarterfinal loss to Russians Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider on Wednesday.

Plastic sheets cover the field during a thunderstorm prior to the start round of sixteen match between Jannik Sinner and Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo at the Italian Open tennis tournament in Rome,

This was Jannik Sinner's 50th victory as the ATP's top-ranked player, in just his 53rd outing as the world number one. Since the ATP rankings were first published in 1973, that is the joint-fewest matches required to reach 50 wins as the world number one,