Karen Khachanov had not yet found his best tennis on the clay-court swing, but he had already worked his way through two matches in Rome. On Tuesday, that was enough to put him into a round of 16 meeting with Dino Prizmic, in a contest expected to be tight from the start.

Prizmic was narrowly favored to win, and the matchup was expected to turn on whether he could absorb Khachanov's power in rallies without being dragged into a match on the Russian's terms. That made the meeting one of the more watchable clashes on a day when all eight round of 16 matches at the ATP Rome Masters were scheduled.

The Rome match sat inside a broader day of pressure and possibility at the tournament, with Jannik Sinner four victories away from an unprecedented sixth consecutive Masters 1000 title. Sinner's next challenge was against Andrea Pellegrino, who had never won a main draw contest at Masters 1000 level until this event, while Sinner had not lost a Masters 1000 match since October.

That is what gave Khachanov's match its edge: it was not a title match, but a test of whether he could raise his level when the draw was tightening and the margins were shrinking. If Prizmic handled the pace and kept the battle close, the favorite's tag could matter; if Khachanov found his rhythm, the prediction could disappear quickly.