Nadal, Thiem on Early Collision Course in Rome; ATP Preview

Will Rafael Nadal face Dominic Thiem for the second week in a row leading into the French Open?
ADHEREL
The Italian Open will be the last stop for most of the top players before Paris, and seeds Tomas Berdych, Thiem, Grigor Dimitrov, Jack Sock and Novak Djokovic are among those with opening-round challenges.

INTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA
ROME, Italy; Surface: clay

Seeds: Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov, Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro, Dominic Thiem, Kevin Anderson, John Isner, David Goffin, Pablo Carreno Busta, Novak Djokovic, Sam Querrey, Jack Sock, Diego Schwartzman, Tomas Berdych, Lucas Pouille

Floaters: Denis Shapovalov, Fabio Fognini, Gael Monfils, Kei Nishikori, David Ferrer, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Stan Wawrinka, Benoit Paire, Richard Gasquet, Borna Coric

Notes:

Interesting starts for (15) Berdych vs. Shapovalov who is finding his footing on clay, (6) Thiem vs. the Fognini-Monfils winner, (3) Dimitrov vs. Nishikori, (13) Sock vs. the former French runner-up Ferrer, the struggling (11) Djokovic vs. “The Dog” Dogopolov, (14) Schwartzman vs. the Paire-Gasquet winner, and (5) Del Potro vs. Coric…

(1) Nadal looking at a quarterfinal rematch with (6) Thiem from last week in Madrid…

The all-Italian wild card slate went to Matteo Berrettini, Marco Cecchinato, Andreas Seppi and Lorenzo Sonego…

Withdrawing from the field were Roberto Bautista Agut, Chung Hyeon, Roger Federer, Filip Krajinovic, Nick Kyrgios, Andy Murray, Milos Raonic, Andrey Rublev, and Jo-Wilfried…

Zverev is the defending champion, last year straight-setting Djokovic in the final…

Djokovic has appeared in the eight of the last 10 Rome finals, winning four titles…

Former champions in the field are Zverev (2017), Djokovic (2015-14,’11,’08), Nadal (2013-12,’10-09,’07-05).