On Friday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, five Grand Slam singles champions took to the court for their second-round matches. One of them, World No.1 Iga Swiatek, collected a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to kick off her title defense.
Here is a tally of how the four other major titlists in action fared throughout the day:
[7] Elena Rybakina def. Jasmine Paolini 7-6(4), 6-1
Reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina needed one tough set and one quick set to move past Italian hope Paolini in 1 hour and 34 minutes, in their first meeting. This year's tour leader in aces, Rybakina fired six on Friday to increase her 2023 total to 252.
Rybakina saw a 3-0 lead in the first set disappear as World No.65 Paolini pulled the opener all the way into a tiebreak. Paolini was up 4-2 at the changeover in the breaker, but Rybakina claimed the next five points to eke out the first set.
Rybakina won 80 percent of Paolini's service points in the second set on the way to booking a third-round appearance.
Rybakina will next face World No.57 Anna Kalinskaya for the second straight WTA 1000 event. Kalinskaya upset Rybakina in the second round of Madrid just two weeks ago.
[10] Barbora Krejcikova def. Danka Kovinic 6-2, 4-1 ret.
2021 Roland Garros champion Krejcikova of the Czech Republic held a commanding lead when World No.69 Kovinic of Montenegro was forced to retire due to a lower back injury after just over an hour of play.
Krejcikova won five games in a row to claim the first set, after which Kovinic took a medical time-out. Kovinic did earn a service break for 1-1 in the second set, but Krejcikova then reeled off three consecutive games before Kovinic ended the match.
[20] Jelena Ostapenko def. Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
2017 Roland Garros champion Ostapenko ended the six-match winning streak of Cirstea, last week's WTA 125 titlist in Reus. Ostapenko had won their two previous meetings, both on hard court in 2017, and she improved to 3-0 against Cirstea with the 2-hour and 14-minute victory.
After splitting the first two sets, the third set featured dramatic moments despite the innocuous-looking scoreline. Ostapenko broke for 2-0 by converting her fourth break point of that lengthy game after forcing an error with a rally backhand.
Ostapenko then cruised to 5-1, where she served for the match, but Cirstea erased six match points in another long game before breaking to extend the clash further. However, Ostapenko immediately regrouped and converted her seventh match point to break Cirstea for the win.
Head to Head
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Ostapenko and Krejcikova will now square off in a third-round battle between Grand Slam champions. Ostapenko holds a slim 3-2 lead in their head-to-head, and she won their lone clay-court meeting, in Prague qualifying back in 2015.
Marketa Vondrousova def. [24] Bianca Andreescu 6-0, 6-1
In their first meeting, Vondrousova ousted 2019 US Open champion Andreescu in only 55 minutes. Canada's Andreescu was the only Grand Slam champion to lose on Friday.
Read more: Healthy again, Vondrousova back and ready to share some wisdom
Czech lefty Vondrousova, the 2019 Roland Garros runner-up to Ashleigh Barty, fired 24 winners to just seven unforced errors, and never faced a break point in the match.
Highlights: Vondrousova def. Andreescu
2021 Olympic silver medalist Vondrousova will aim for the ninth Top 10 win of her career when she has her first career meeting against No.9 seed Maria Sakkari in the third round.
