Italy has two contenders in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open men's singles after defending champion Jannik Sinner beat his compatriot Luciano Darderi 6-1 6-3 7-6 and world number five Lorenzo Musetti saw off American Taylor Fritz 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.
    World number five Musetti now faces all-time tennis great Novak Djokovic in the last eight, having only beaten the Serbian once in the 10 previous matches against him.
    World number two Sinner, who is aiming to triumph in Melbourne for the third consecutive year, faces the winner of the match between American Ben Shelton and Norwegian Casper Ruud in the next round.
    Sinner and Musetti will be up against each other in the semi-finals if they both win their next matches.
    "It was very difficult.

We are good friends off the court, that's also a small difficulty to put away," Sinner said of Darderi.
    "In the third set I had a couple of break chances, but I couldn't use them.
    "Then I got very tight, so I'm very happy that I closed it in three sets".
    Sinner also spoke about some changes he is making to his way of playing.
    "We put a lot of work in, especially with the serve," Sinner said.
    "We changed the motion a bit and I feel for sure a little bit more confident.

There is still room to improve, which is normal, but I'm very happy with how I have come back in the new season.
    "At the end of last season, I served really well. It's much more stable".
   

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