The seeds are thinning at the Italy Major. Franco Stupaczuk and Miguel Yanguas — ranked No. 6 and No. 7 — are out in the round of 16, beaten in straight sets by Jerónimo González and Lucas Campagnolo. It was the sharpest of several cracks that opened across 32 matches on a day the underdogs did the heavy lifting.
Jerónimo González & Campagnolo 6-4 7-6 Stupaczuk & Yanguas
On ranking, this was a mismatch. Stupaczuk (No. 6) and Yanguas (No. 7) faced a pairing sitting at No. 14 and No. 21, a gulf of nearly a dozen places. It did not play out that way.
González and Campagnolo took the opening set 6-4 and then held their nerve in the passage that mattered, edging a tight second-set tiebreak 7-6 to close it in two. Stupaczuk and Yanguas are among the most explosive of the top pairings, but explosiveness cuts both ways — the errors that follow a misfiring vibora piled up at exactly the wrong moments.
The result removes a genuine title threat before the quarter-finals and hands the winners a run they could not have expected on seeding. For Stupaczuk and Yanguas, still bedding in as a partnership, it is another early exit that will register in the season race.
Rodríguez & Dal Pozzo 6-4 0-6 7-6 Orsi & Llaguno
The first of two wins on the day for Nuria Rodríguez and home favourite Giulia Dal Pozzo, and the more turbulent of them. They took the opener 6-4, were then bageled 6-0 in a second set that vanished almost as fast as it arrived, and had to reassemble everything in the decider.
They did. The third set went all the way to a tiebreak, and Rodríguez and Dal Pozzo held their edge to win it 7-6. Against Orsi and Llaguno — the higher-ranked pair — it was a survival job as much as a performance, but it kept the run alive.
Rodríguez & Dal Pozzo 3-6 6-3 6-2 Araújo & Fernández
The upset of the women's draw. Sofía Araújo (No. 8) and Claudia Fernández (No. 6) are one of the tour's established top units; Rodríguez and Dal Pozzo, with Dal Pozzo ranked outside the top 40, had no business winning on paper — and no interest in respecting it.
They dropped the first set 3-6, then flipped the match, taking the second 6-3 and running away with the decider 6-2. Backing up a three-set survival in the round of 16 with a three-set win over seeded opposition, all in one day, carries them into the semi-finals — Dal Pozzo doing it in front of an Italian crowd.
Coello & Tapia 6-1 6-1 Gala & Jensen
No drama at the top. The No. 1 seeds needed 55 minutes' worth of scoreboard and little more, dismissing David Gala and Enzo Jensen 6-1 6-1. Coello and Tapia controlled the net, closed the glass exchanges early, and never let their opponents settle into a rhythm.
Triay & Brea 6-1 6-1 Martínez Fortún & Escacena
The women's top seeds matched them stride for stride. Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea brushed aside Patricia Martínez Fortún and Claudia Escacena by the same 6-1 6-1 line, a routine of controlled bandejas and clinical closing that never threatened to become a contest.
Both favourites move on having spent almost nothing.
Rodríguez and Dal Pozzo carry an unlikely home run into the women's semi-finals, while Coello/Tapia and Triay/Brea look ominously untroubled at the top of both draws. With Stupaczuk and Yanguas gone, the men's quarter-finals resume tomorrow with the bottom half suddenly wide open.