Djokovic Whacked On Head, Zverev Wins, Ruud Out At Rome; Nadal v Hurakcz

The most difficult part of Novak Djokovic‘s opening round win over Corentin Moutet Friday at the Rome Masters was leaving the court. The 6-time tournament champion got whacked on the head by a water bottle which appeared to accidently slip out of a fan’s backpack.

Djokovic was OK but did need some treatment.

“Thank you for the messages of concern. This was an accident and I am fine resting at the hotel with an ice pack. See you all on Sunday,” Djokovic posted.

On court, the Serb got down 3-1 to the pesky lefty then rolled to a 6-3, 6-1 win taking 11 of the last 12 games.

Fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic scored his own big win upsetting the 5th-seeded Casper Ruud 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Ruud was battling some back issues late is his match after blanking Kecmanovic 6-0 in the opener.

No. 3 seed and former tournament winner Alexander Zverev breezed past Aleksandar Vukic in straights 6-0, 6-4.

Also, 11 seed Taylor Fritz continued to play well on clay ousting Italian favorite Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-4. No. 16 seed Karen Khachanov moved past Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 6-4.

No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov ousted Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 7-5, 6-4. No. 12 Ben Shelton took care of Pavel Kotov 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a testy affair. And No. 24 Sebastian Korda quieted the unruly crowd taking out Italian Flavio Cobolli 7-6(6), 4-6, 6-4.

Tomorrow, 10-time champion Rafael Nadal returns to take on Hubert Hurkacz in a first-time meeting.

“I see it like a very positive today,” Nadal said Thursday. “Even if I didn’t play well, that for me was a little bit in some ways surprising, in another hand not surprising because I didn’t play much tennis for almost two years.

“I need to accept that my level, it’s a little bit more on and off. It’s not like used to be that was very stable everything. I need to find this stability again.”

Defending champ Daniil Medvedev will challenge Jack Draper, Madrid winner Andrey Rublev faces Marcos Giron and No. 6 Stefanos Tsitsipas will meet Jan-Lennard Struff.

“I’m feeling good now. I had minor injury, I would say,” Medvedev said Thursday. “Like, what was it, three days stayed in Madrid, recovered a lot. I came here, hit with the sparrings to control my movement. Today I hit full. The match, even have an extra day tomorrow, so ready to play.

“Yeah, normally no risk to do anything like worse to the injury, so I will play and see how it goes.”