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It's been 35 years since an Italian man ranked inside the ATP's top 10 (Corrado Barazzutti), so it's only natural that fans of Italian tennis have begun to clamor about about world No. 13 Fabio Fognini's current proximity to tennis's top 10 at the moment. Video: Seppi Shaves the Line with Tweener against Youzhny in Monte-Carlo But all the top-10 talk is not bothering Fognini one bit. “Right now everybody in Italy, they talking that I have to be top 10,” Fognini told reporters after Monday's three-set victory over Joao Sousa. “It's not my problem. I'm okay at the moment. I feel really good. I'm in a good way. I'm really confident.” Fognini is only 180 points out of the No. 10 slot, but he does have semifinal points to defend in Monte-Carlo. He's got a ridiculously tough draw at the year's first clay-court Masters 1000 event, so he'll have to be brilliant to get there. Fognini faces up-and-coming Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut in the second round on Wednesday, and would face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga if he defeats Bautista-Agut. If he somehow gets through those two rounds, Roger Federer should be waiting for Fognini in the quarterfinals. The San Remo, Italy native will have some wiggle room later in the clay-court season, however. Last season Fognini suffered a first-round loss in Madrid, a second-round loss in Rome and a third-round loss at Roland Garros. He didn't win a match at Wimbledon, either. “Of course, I have four big tournaments to play, another one like Munich, a lot of points during this time," he said. "I just thinking about my game every week. If I have the chance or not, depends because too many things can happen. I'm ready, but you never know.”

Top seed Fabio Fognini slipped into traditional Bavarian costume on “Bavarian Day” at the BMW OPEN by FWU AG, after winning his quarter-final match Friday.

“It was something different, very nice and a lot of fun,” said the Italian No. 1. “I felt good in the clothing, but we missed out on having a few beers!”

Fognini is making his first appearance in Munich and is looking for his third title on German soil. He won his maiden ATP World Tour title last July in Stuttgart and claimed the Hamburg crown the following week.

The World No. 15 will play 96th-ranked German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff on Saturday for a place in the Munich final.

Defending champion Fabio Fognini returns to the MercedesCup in Stuttgart, where one year ago he captured his first ATP World Tour crown with a three-set win over Philipp Kohlschreiber.

“The first title is always special. Especially here in Stuttgart, because of how I played at the tournament,” said Fognini. “Since then I’ve changed a lot. My tennis is better. I feel great on court and I hope to play well this year.”

On Sunday, the 27 year old practised with wild card German Alexander Zverev on the brand new grass courts at the Weissenhof Club, which will host the MercedesCup on grass for the first time in 2015.

“The court is really nice. It’s a fast surface but here in Stuttgart we're at a higher altitude,” said Fognini, who owns three ATP World Tour titles (also 2013 Hamburg and 2014 Vina del Mar). “I look forward to coming here next year.”

Awarded a first-round bye as the tournament's top seed, Fognini will face either Andrey Golubev or Philipp Petzschner to open defence of his title. Zverev, a wild card, plays Lukas Rosol in the first round.

Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini captured their first Grand Slam championship doubles title on Saturday at the Australian Open.

The Italian duo, playing their ninth major together, defeated all-French team Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

“To do this with Fabio is unbelievable,” said Bolelli. “I think we did something amazing. Now I think we're thinking about the [Barclays] ATP [World Tour] Finals is one of our goals.”

“Everything is in our hands now,” added Fognini. “For sure we are going to celebrate.”

They are the first all-Italian pairing to win a Grand Slam doubles title since Nicola Pietrangeli and Orlando Sirola lifted the 1959 Roland Garros crown.

Bolelli and Fognini’s triumph at the Australian Open marks their third trophy, including the 2011 Umag (d. Cilic-Zovko) and 2013 Buenos Aires (Monroe-Stadler).

“All the credit to the Italians who played really good,” said Herbert. “We had an unbelievable team against us and they played a really good match.”

Herbert was broken twice in the 41-minute opener, which was decided on the team that served better. Bolelli and Fognini lost seven of their first service points and committed five fewer unforced errors, while the French team were left to rue only capitalising on one of their five break point chances.

BolelliThe Italians once again put Herbert under pressure on serve early in the second set. At 1-1, Herbert saved two break points from 15/40 in a confidence-boosting hold. At 5-4, Fognini took his chance lashing a forehand return to Mahut's feet, when he served at 30/40. Bolelli calmly sealed the biggest victory of their careers.

After the match, Herbert admitted, “Twenty minutes before the match I felt a big pain. I had a problem. I don't know if it's because was a final or if it was because [of] anything [else]. But after this I took some medicine because I couldn't almost run or anything. I was really in pain... I felt dizzy the whole match. I had the feeling it was maybe the worst minutes of my tennis career because I wanted to do everything for my partner, for everybody who was expecting something.”

Herbert and Mahut, who hit 23 winners, had been bidding to become the first French pairing to win the Australian Open title here since Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro in 2004. Prior to the championships, the pair had never before won a tour-level match.

No. 4 seed Fabio Fognini upped the excitement level on Tuesday at the Rio Open presented by Claro, saving three match points in his 1-6 7-6(7), 6-1 win over 21-year-old Jiri Vesely.

The young Czech held a 6-3 lead in the second set tie-break before Fognini came charging back to level the match on his second set point. That momentum proved more than enough for the 28-year-old Italian as he closed out the contest in one hour and 40 minutes.

"It was a strange match," said Fognini. "It was a very difficult one because I played really bad at the begining. In the second set, I was 5-3 up and serving for the set, but I lost that game. I was a little bit unlucky to lose that game, but I kept playing the best I could, hanging in there, even though it was a difficult match for me.

"Then in the second set, after facing three match points, it was a little bit easier. Of course, the third set was hard for both of us, but more for him because he had the chance to win and mentally it was a really difficult match."

The win marks Fognini's second victory of the season against a hot Vesely, who captured his first ATP World Tour title in Auckland as a qualifier.

The World No. 27, who reached the quarter-finals last year in Rio, will next face Pablo Andujar. The Spaniard prevailed in a topsy-turvy match of his own on Tuesday, ousting Paolo Lorenzi 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 in over two hours.

Wild card Brazilian Joao Souza continued his Golden Swing success with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Facundo Arguello in their first ATP World Tour meeting. The 26 year old reached his third ATP World Tour semi-final last week in Sao Paulo (l. to Vanni) just after making a run to his first ATP World Tour doubles final in Quito with partner Victor Estrella Burgos (l. to Kretschmer/Satschko).

He will meet Blaz Rola next, who booked his second-round spot after No. 5 seed Leonardo Mayer retired down 6-4, 6-7(3), 1-4 due to dehydration.

Stomach problems forced No. 7 seed Santiago Giraldo to retire down 3-6, 0-3, allowing Juan Monaco to advance.

Fabio Fognini turned Master Chef on Tuesday night in Buenos Aires as he cooked dinner for himself and his team at a typical Argentine restaurant, La Cabrera.

Under the guidance of the restaurant’s chef, the Italian cooked traditional Argentine dishes: choripan, provoleta and the meat bife de chorizo. Once the food was ready, Fognini presented and served the dishes to his team at their table.

“I often cook at home but it's usually very simple things such as pasta al tonno, al pomodoro or al pesto,” said Fognini. My coach loves to eat. He lives to eat, I eat to live.

“It was a very nice experience to see how they cook their specialities here. It's unbelievably hot here where the Chef stands. He's working very hard in tough conditions.”

Fognini is the fourth seed at this week’s Argentina Open presentado por Buenos Aires Ciudad. The 27 year old was runner-up at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament last year (l. to Ferrer) and comes in on the back of beating Rafael Nadal to reach the Rio de Janeiro final last week (l. to Ferrer). He will open his campaign on Thursday against Carlos Berlocq.

Fabio Fognini has beaten Rafael Nadal for a second time this year.

Fognini, the No. 13 seed, who is now four match wins shy of 200 victories in his career, defeated second seed and eight-time former champion Nadal 6-4, 7-6(6) on Thursday at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell.

It denied Nadal his 20th match win of the season. Fognini had also beaten Nadal in the Rio de Janeiro semi-finals in February.

"I think today I played really solid tennis," said Fognini. "I was hitting the ball really well in both sets. The key of course was winning the second set. It would have been difficult playing him at one-set-all, especially the way I would have lost the second set, having had three match points."

Fognini continually pressed for a break in the opener. Although he overcooked a forehand on his first set point opportunity on Nadal’s serve at 4-5, 30/40, he clinched his second chance with a forehand volley winner. It silenced the crowd.

There were three breaks of serve in the first four games of the second set, which saw Nadal take a 3-1 lead. But Fognini maintained his composure to fight back. He took a 6/3 lead in the tie-break, but Nadal recovered to 6/6 before mis-timing a forehand to gift his opponent a fourth match point. The match lasted two hours.

Prior to this week, Fognini had been winless in his five previous appearances in Barcelona.

He will next face another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over fifth seed Feliciano Lopez.