Stefano Napolitano wins 33 straight points, golden set

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 - but did so via winning the first 33 points of the match.

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 per cent points on my first serve and second serve in the first set. It was ridiculous.

"But he [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.