Holger Rune survived a fifth-set tie-break against Francisco Cerundolo to set up a French Open quarter-final rematch with Casper Ruud.
Their encounter at the same stage last year descended into acrimony when Rune accused Ruud of celebrating in his face in the locker room and showing a lack of class, which was fiercely denied by the Norwegian.
For a while it looked like they might not meet again, with Argentinian Cerundolo battling back from two sets to one down to force a decider and then holding three break points at 4-3.
Dane Rune saved all of them, broke serve himself then failed to serve it out but put the disappointment behind him to clinch a 7-6 (3) 3-6 6-4 1-6 7-6 (7) victory after just short of four hours.
Rune felt it was just deserts after his loss at the same stage of the Australian Open to Andrey Rublev, saying: “I had a heart-breaking loss in Australia where I could serve for it and I lost it in a match tie-break like this.
“I told myself when we started the tie-break just to relax and enjoy it. Moments like this stay with you whether you win or you lose. I enjoyed every moment.”
There was another moment of umpiring controversy in the third set when, like in the clash between Cameron Norrie and Lucas Pouille on the same court, the umpire failed to spot a double bounce.
This time Cerundolo was the victim and, to compound matters, umpire Kader Nouni awarded Rune the point after his opponent gestured that it should have been stopped.
Ruud edged three tight sets against Chilean Nicolas Jarry, coming through 7-6 (3) 7-5 7-5 to keep alive his hopes of making back-to-back finals.
The Norwegian is slowly coming back into form after a disappointing start to the year, and he said: “This year I felt a little more pressure, obviously, because I needed to try to defend my final spot.
“That’s been on my mind. And I haven’t done as well in other tournaments, so I know every match that I can win and points on the rankings that I can try to gain can be important for the rest of the year.
“So I don’t feel like I have played my best tennis yet but, at the same time, I’m playing many opponents who play very aggressively and they play fast and give me no rhythm.
“I think my next match is going to be a little more playable from the baseline and I think the game will be a little bit different from this match. I’m going to try to prepare for that and hopefully bring my A game.”
Sabalenka defeats Collins to set up Swiatek rematch
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Danielle Collins 7-5 6-2 to set up yet another meeting with Iga Swiatek at the Italian Open.
Having defeated Collins en route to the final of the Madrid Open, which she lost to Swiatek, Sabalenka repeated the trick with a straight sets win over the American in Thursday's semi-final.
And the Belarusian's reward will be an immediate rematch with Swiatek.
The duo have met 10 times, including in Madrid earlier this month, with Swiatek winning seven times and Sabalenka claiming three victories.
This will be Sabalenka's first appearance in the Italian Open final.
She is the sixth player, along with Simona Halep (2017), Dinara Safina (2009), Serena Williams (2013), Ons Jabeur (2022), and Swiatek (2024) to have reached the final of both Madrid and Rome in the same season.
Data Debrief: Perfect record
Collins is the only player against whom Sabalenka has registered six wins without a loss in WTA events, while only against Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens does she have more wins in her career in such events (seven each).
The final will mark the fourth meeting on clay between Swiatek and Sabalenka as world number one and two, equalling Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the most meetings on the surface as the WTA's top-two ranked players.
Swiatek makes it back-to-back finals with Gauff win
Iga Swiatek is through to the Italian Open final for the third time after seeing off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-3 on Thursday.
There was little to separate the two in the opening 50 minutes as they played to 4-4 before Gauff left an opening with back-to-back double faults, and Swiatek took full advantage.
The world number one broke Gauff’s serve four times, including in the fifth game of the second set to swing the momentum firmly in her favour after one hour 48 minutes on the court.
Swiatek has now reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals after winning the Madrid Open earlier this month and could face Aryna Sabalenka for the title once more if the Belarusian gets past Danielle Collins in the other semi-final.
Data Debrief: Unstoppable on clay
Swiatek has now won 11 consecutive matches, and registered her 10th victory over Gauff in 11 meetings between the two - she has won all four matches against the American on clay.
Since the format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek (40 per cent, 12/30) holds the highest percentage of finals reached from WTA-1000 main draws entered. Serena Williams (36.7 per cent, 18/49) is the next best in the format's history.
Since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Swiatek has become only the third player to reach multiple Italian Open finals as the WTA's number one, along with Serena Williams (three) and Monica Seles (two). She will be looking for her third Italian Open title on Saturday.
Paul sees off Hurkacz in seesaw quarter-final
Tommy Paul reached the semi-final of the Italian Open after pulling through a rollercoaster clash with Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.
The number 14 seed downed Hurkacz 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 in the quarter-final, keeping his composure during his two hours and 43 minutes on the court.
After winning the first set, Hurkacz fought back to win the second, but the American was not out of the contest yet as he clawed back from 0-2 down early in the third.
He closed out the win in a dramatic fashion, fending off six break points while letting three of his own slip, to eventually set up a semi-final against Stefanos Tsitsipas or Nicolas Jerry on Friday.
Data Debrief: Into the final four
After beating Daniil Medvedev in the previous round, Paul has now won back-to-back matches against top-10 opponents for the first time in his professional career with his victory over Hurkacz.
Paul earned his 150th tour-level win to take him through to his third Masters 1000 semi-final, as he aims to become the first American finalist in Rome since Andre Agassi in 2002.
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