Italian number one Andreas Seppi sent his home crowd into a frenzy as he battled Stanislas Wawrinka. Seppi fought off six match points to win 6-7, 7-6, 7-6 in a match that stretched to 3 hours and 21 minutes.
Both dropped service games in the opening set before Stan thumped his way to a 7-1 lead to take the tiebreak and the first set.
In the third set Stan stood up to serve for the match having broken Seppi twice but the plucky Italian, spurred on by his home crowd, fought his way back to force a tiebreak.
Again Seppi fell behind in the tiebreak facing match points at 3-6 but with some brilliant play he managed to secure five consecutive points and a place in the quarterfinals.
Since the tie break rule was introduce in Rome in 1971 it was the first time that all three sets had been decided in tie breaks.
Seppi goes into his quarterfinal match against Roger Federer with over 6 hours of court time under his belt.
