Rome Masters Day 5 Tips: Enigmatic Fognini could provide a real challenge to Rune

• Alcaraz through on rain-delayed Saturday

• Djokovic a heavy favourite against Dimitrov

• Fognini potentially of interest to underdog backers

Rain-delays impact Saturday schedule

Many of yesterday's round two matches were unable to start due to the weather, including Daniil Medvedev against Emil Ruusuvuori, where we have the underdog on the game handicap.

My thoughts on those matches rolling over to today were covered in Saturday's preview, and they cover the start of the Sunday schedule with most of the third round matches taking place later on today.

However, in the matches which did take place on Saturday, tournament favourite Carlos Alcaraz eased to another victory, defeating countryman Albert Ramos in straight-sets.

Djokovic could be tested by Dimitrov

Following that, it's now down to Novak Djokovic to impress if he wants to keep pace with Alcaraz at the top of the outright market. He was a little unconvincing in his opener against Tomas Etcheverry, and now faces a slight opponent upgrade in Grigor Dimitrov. Djokovic is currently 1.182/11.

Djokovic has dominated Dimitrov in their previous clashes, winning ten of 11, and a recurring theme of those is how his high level return game has caused issues for Dimitrov's serve, with Djokovic winning in excess of 40% of return points.

While a number of those matches were a long time ago, I do think the same challenges remain for Dimitrov here - he will need to serve very well to have a chance, or Djokovic to have an off-day, which is certainly possible given his recent elbow issues.

Rune should be wary of enigmatic Fognini

Similarly priced to Djokovic is Holger Rune, who takes on Fabio Fognini in a match-up which I'm looking forward to. Of course, Fognini isn't really the same player who reached the top 10 a few years back, and turns 36 years of age in several weeks time, but his ability to be an extremely talented enigma remains.

If you're a regular underdog backer, that's really all you can ask for - a player who could turn up and play amazingly for several hours, or play like he's barely played the sport before at professional level. That's the risk you take, and Fognini backers will know the feeling all too well over the years.

They will, however, be in credit this week with the Italian picking up two odds-against victories to make this stage, against Andy Murray and Miomir Kecmanović.

His serve, which has struggled this year in general, has looked far more solid so far here in Rome. While Rune is clearly on his way to the top five, Fognini in Italy with home support could provide a real challenge and if you're going to back a 5.609/2 shot, this is probably a decent enough spot.

Djere with slight edge in clay-courter battle

Finally, with most of the round three matches later on today's schedule being one-sided from a pre-match pricing perspective, one match which looks more evenly-matched in theory is the battle of clay-courters between Laslo Djere and Christian Garin, who picked up a good winner for us on Friday against Tommy Paul.

Djere is the 1.845/6 favourite, which makes sense to me. He has a very slight edge on serve numbers this year on clay, with similar return figures, and the same dynamic exists also on slightly longer-term data as well.

Both players have picked up a fair few wins of late, with Garin doing so on the main tour but Djere reaching a Challenger final in Cagliari last week in a high-quality field, so this promises to be a decent, competitive match between two players keen to push to get inside the top 50 again.