The seeds took a beating on the second day of the Italy Major. The heaviest blow landed in the men's round of 16, where Franco Stupaczuk and Miguel Yanguas — a top-eight pairing — were sent home in straight sets. On a day that rarely rewarded the favourites, it was the defining result.
Jerónimo González / Campagnolo 6-4 7-6 Stupaczuk / Yanguas
The ranking gap told one story; the scoreboard told another. Jerónimo González (14) and Lucas Campagnolo (21) had no theoretical business beating Stupaczuk (6) and Yanguas (7), yet they close it out without needing a third set.
The first set goes 6-4. The second is where it should have swung back — Stupaczuk and Yanguas drag it to a tiebreak — but González and Campagnolo hold their nerve to take it 7-6 and with it the match. No decider, no reprieve.
This is the biggest result of the day, and it blows a hole in the men's draw. Stupaczuk and Yanguas were the seeded pair most likely to test the top half; their exit hands the quarter to whoever survives from beneath them.
Nuria Rodríguez / Dal Pozzo 6-4 0-6 7-6 Orsi / Llaguno
Home favourite Giulia Dal Pozzo and Nuria Rodríguez survive a genuine scare to reach the quarter-finals. The pair take the opening set 6-4, then are handed a bagel — a 6-0 second set — as Carolina Orsi and Patricia Llaguno level the match without conceding a single game.
The decider goes the distance. Dal Pozzo and Rodríguez recover their footing and edge a tense third-set tiebreak 7-6 to close it out. Three sets, three entirely different matches inside one.
Nuria Rodríguez / Dal Pozzo 3-6 6-3 6-2 Araujo / Claudia Fernández
Then they did it again — and this one counts as an upset. Sofía Araújo (8) and Claudia Fernández (6) are a top-eight seed; Dal Pozzo (50) and Rodríguez are not seeded at all. The lower-ranked pair drop the first set 3-6 before turning the quarter-final on its head.
They take the second 6-3 and pull clear in the third, 6-2, tightening their grip as the seeds faded. Two three-set matches in a single day, two scalps, and a semi-final place: Dal Pozzo carries the home crowd through.
Coello / Tapia 6-1 6-1 Gala / Jensen
No such drama for the world No. 1s. Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia brush aside David Gala and Enzo Jensen 6-1 6-1, a routine hour's work that keeps them on the far side of the draw from the day's chaos. Business as usual.
Triay / Brea 6-1 6-1 Martínez / Escacena
The women's top seeds matched them. Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea dismiss Patricia Martínez and Claudia Escacena by the same 6-1 6-1 margin, dropping just two games to march through the round of 16 untroubled.
The men's draw has cracked open around the exit of Stupaczuk and Yanguas, while the women's headline act is unmistakably Dal Pozzo and Rodríguez, into the semi-finals on home soil with a seed already beaten. Coello–Tapia and Triay–Brea, meanwhile, look ominously untroubled.