The Internazionali BNL d'Italia opening round was won by Emil Ruusuvuori on Thursday after he twice quickly overcame dire situations. Before defeating Ugo Humbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(6) at the ATP Masters 1000 competition in Rome, the Finn saved two match points. Despite both times that Humbert served, Ruusuvuori managed to hold off the first at 4-5, 40/30 in the third set before replicating his escape when he was down 5/6 in the tie-break.
In the end, Ruusuvuori won an exciting three-hour match in which both players five times broke the serve of their rivals to advance to the second round and face third seed Daniil Medvedev. The World No. 43 is currently 15-12 on the year, including his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal appearance in Miami in March.
The Finn won by a tight margin for the third time in a straight in their ATP Head2Head matchup. Humbert, meanwhile, had won in two exhausting three-set matches to win the ATP Challenger Tour 175 championship in Cagliari last week. In the pair's first match at the tour level at Roland Garros in 2022, Ruusuvuori won in five sets.