{"id":70973,"date":"2021-05-13T22:52:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T22:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=70973"},"modified":"2021-05-14T01:01:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T01:01:16","slug":"tennis-fans-ordered-out-mid-match-in-farcical-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=70973","title":{"rendered":"Tennis fans ordered out mid-match in farcical scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Play at the Italian Open<\/a> has been halted and fans were ordered out of the grandstands, as Rome's COVID-19 curfew cut in mid-match.<\/p>\n

US Open champion Dominic Thiem<\/a> had just levelled his match with Lorenzo Sonego at a set apiece, when play was suspended.<\/p>\n

Fans were asked to leave in order to comply with Italy's 10pm curfew, forcing a 20 minute delay to the match.<\/p>\n

The suspension didn't do Thiem any favours, with Sonego taking the third set, and the match, 7-6.<\/p>\n

"It's amazing, unbelievable, an emotional moment for me," said Sonego after the win.<\/p>\n

"I'm at home, in front of the fans. I'm so happy for this victory, because along with (Rafael) Nadal he's the best player on clay."<\/p>\n

\"Crowds<\/p>\n

Sonego's next opponent is Russian Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The scenes in Rome were reminiscent of those at the Australian Open in Melbourne in February, when fans were sent home from Rod Laver Arena<\/a> during Novak Djokovic's match with Taylor Fritz.<\/p>\n

Italy is currently recording around 7000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, down from a peak of 40,000 per day in November.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere at the Italian Open, Rafael Nadal<\/a> came back from a set and a break down to beat Denis Shapovalov and advance to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Nadal trailed 3-6, 0-3 and also saved match points in the third set, before prevailing 3-6, 6-4, 7-6.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

"That's why he's won so many matches on clay," Shapovalov said. "It's not the first time Rafa's done this. I'm not the first person to lose with match points. He does well with the pressure in those moments."<\/p>\n

Nadal, who is a nine-time champion at this tournament, now plays 2017 champion Alexander Zverev, who downed Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n

In other matches, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated ninth seed Matteo Berrettini 7-6, 6-2, while Reilly Opelka downed Australian Open semi-finalist Aslan Karatsev 7-6, 6-4.<\/p>\n

Australia's Ash Barty<\/a> beat Veronika Kudermetova 6-3, 6-3 and now faces American teenager Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Play at the Italian Open has been halted and fans were ordered out of the grandstands, as Rome's COVID-19 curfew cut in mid-match. US Open […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70975,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70973\/revisions\/70975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}