Stefano Napolitano registered a rare golden set in a professional tennis match on Monday at a Challenger Tour event in his native Italy.
Playing in the qualifying draw of an event on the ATP World Tour's second tier, Napolitano defeated countryman Augusto Virgili 6-0 6-3 – and did so via winning the first 33 points of the match.
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Napolitano was leading 6-0 2-0 and 0-15 before Virgili broke the drought in Todi, and the 20-year-old victor – ranked 356th in the world – was rather understated post-match.
"I didn't know how many points I won in a row but then they told me it was 33. It's hard to win that many points in a row. I was serving and returning very well," he told ATPWorldTour.com. "After the match I talked to my coach and I went to check the stats. I won 100-percent points on my first serve and second serve in the first set. It was ridiculous.
"But [Virgili] is a good player. In the second set we had a normal match."
Napolitano joins Julian Reister and Yaroslava Shvedova as the only players known to have recorded a perfect set since the turn of the millennium.
Of those, Shvedova's feat was the most well-known – given she did it against then-10th seed Sara Errani in the third round at Wimbledon in 2012.
“Of course it gives you confidence but you also know that it is not going to happen again in the next match," Napolitano said. "I’m trying to play more Challengers to get some confidence and improve my game. I would like to be in the Top 200 by the end of the year."