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Iga Swiatek’s 2023 Italian Open conquest began with an impeccable 6-0, 6-0 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her opening-round match on Friday. The world no. 1, who’s a two-time defending titlist in Rome needed just seven minutes past the hour to complete the win in her attempt to win the tournament for thrice in a row.
Swiatek won 75% of her first-serve points to Pavlyuchenkova’s 45%. She won 87% points on return on the former world no. 11’s second serve while winning seven of 15 points played on her second serve. She converted six break points on Pavlyuchenkova’s serve while saving the lone break point that came up on her serve.
For the match, Swiatek finished with 57 points of which 19 were winners and 19 came courtesy of her opponent’s unforced errors. Pavlyuchenkova won 29 points, seven of which were winners. Following this result, Swiatek’s now won two matches with a 6-0, 6-0 score in Italy.
According to OptaAce, she now equals Chris Evert as the only other player to win two such matches in the tournament. Overall, Swiatek’s won three matches with a 6-0, 6-0 score. In Poland’s tie against Romania in the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, in April, Swiatek defeated Andrea Prisacariu with a double bagel.
Here, Swiatek awaits either Lesia Tsurenko or 28th Bernarda Pera next.
Italian Open: Julia Grabher ousts Jil Teichmann
Barbara Strycova’s Rome appearance ended with a second-round defeat at the hands of ninth seed Maria Sakkari.
The Greek completed a 6-1, 6-3 win over the Czech in 80 minutes. Sakkari won 76% of her first-serve points and 59% of points on return on the latter’s first serve. She saved six of eight break points she faced while converting six break points on Strycova’s serve.
Marketa Vondrousova or 24th seed Bianca Andreescu will play Sakkari in the third round. Liudmila Samsonova, seeded 16th, opened her campaign in the Italian Open with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Anett Kontaveit. Lastly, Julia Grabher came up with 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3 upset over 26th seed Jil Teichmann in their round-of-64 clash. Photo Credit: Italian Open Twitter