Top seeds Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina advanced to the third round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, while Victoria Azarenka won a blockbuster against Venus Williams, the only first-round match on Wednesday’s schedule. Our photographer Jimmie48 made it to most of today’s matches in Rome, but before showing you his photos, let’s first do a little recap.
Playing her first event back since the hiatus, Belinda Bencic fell to qualifier Danka Kovinic 6-3 6-1 in just 71 minutes. This is probably Kovinic’s biggest career victory, but the Montenegrin had actually defeated the Swiss in their only previous meeting, over five years ago at Charleston. The sixth-seeded Bencic is the only seed that fell in Wednesday’s second-round action in Rome.
Top seed Simona Halep withstood an early scare to overcome wildcard Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-4 and extend her winning streak to ten matches, including title runs at Dubai and Prague. The Romanian’s third-round opponent will be Dayana Yastremska, who battled past Amanda Anisimova 4-6 7-6(3) 6-4.
Seed No.10 Elena Rybakina defeated Marie Bouzkova 7-5 7-6(3) and seed No.11 Elise Mertens beat Magda Linette 6-2 6-4.
In the evening, second seed Karolina Pliskova kicked off her title defense with a 6-3 6-3 victory over fellow Czech Barbora Strycova, while fourth seed Elina Svitolina closed Wednesday’s schedule with a hard-fought 6-3 7-6(4) win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
In the sole first-round encounter today, Victoria Azarenka continued to impress with her recent form as she battled past Venus Williams in a very tough opener and is now awaiting yet another super tough opponent in Sofia Kenin.
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE 2020 INTERNAZIONALI BNL D’ITALIA:
- Tuesday: Kerber out, Muguruza and Gauff advance
- Monday: First-round action kicks off, US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka arrives in Rome
- Getting ready for the tournament
I think Bencic is wearing the pink version of Maria Wimbledon dress, she wouldv’e worn it at the USO had she not withdrew from it right?
Random question:
Dear Marija, did Sharapova played the 2008 AO womens doubles? How come there was her name with Tanasugarn in wikipedia draw? I dont remembered she did though.
Ian, yes, Belinda is wearing the Nike Fall London Maria Dress. I suppose Belinda would’ve worn this pink dress at the US Open, since she’s wearing it now.
According to the WTA website, Maria didn’t play doubles at all in 2008 and when I checked the AO doubles draw, there was no Maria Sharapova, while Tanasugarn played with Aiko Nakamura.