
This content was published 9 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.
Italian players Thomas Fabbiano, Andrea Arnaboldi and Stefano Napolitano all achieved surprise upsets of top 100 players in front of their home crowd on the first day of men’s qualifying.
World number 206 Fabbiano beat Brazilian world number 78 Joao Souza 64 62 while Arnaboldi, ranked 203, beat world number 55 Mikhail Kukushkin 26 75 62.
But arguably it is world number 359, Napolitano who topped those results with an impressive 64 75 triumph over Austrian Jurgen Melzer, ranked 79 in the world.
The trio will look to earn a place in the main draw when they have their final qualifying matches on Sunday, a day when the first ATP first round matches get underway.
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