Zheng, Navarro advance in Rome; Rybakina to face Andreescu in third round
Top 10 players Zheng Qinwen and Emma Navarro were quick winners as they each got their Internazionali BNL d'Italia campaigns underway on Friday.
Later in the day, former Rome champion Elena Rybakina and Bianca Andreescu picked up victories. The Grand Slam titlists will now face each other in a rematch of their Madrid meeting from earlier this month.
Rome: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Here's the lowdown:
[8] Zheng Qinwen def. Olga Danilovic 6-1, 6-4
No. 8 seed Zheng of China took an hour-and-a-half to defeat Olga Danilovic of Serbia and reach the third round. Zheng had won their sole previous encounter at 2024 United Cup and is now 4-0 in sets against the Serb.
Danilovic came into the clash as a dangerous floater, ranked a career-high No. 33 and just outside the seedings. The 24-year-old has won 11 of her last 14 matches, including a title at WTA 125 Antalya and a final at WTA 250 Rouen.
But Zheng won the first five games of Friday's showdown, then held her nerve in a closer second set which featured five breaks of serve. Reigning Olympic gold medalist Zheng finished the match with 17 winners to Danilovic's eight.
Zheng, a Rome quarterfinalist last year, will next meet No. 26 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland, who ousted former finalist Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-4 on Friday.
Frech beat Zheng in their first career meeting, on the grass of Eastbourne in 2022. Zheng got her revenge on the hard courts of Cincinnati last year, leveling their head-to-head at 1-1.
[10] Emma Navarro def. [LL] Kamilla Rakhimova 6-1, 6-3
Later in the day, No. 10 seed Navarro of the United States posted a 1-hour and 25-minute win over lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova.
World No. 85 Rakhimova lost in the final round of qualies but took great advantage of her second chance, getting into the main draw anyway and notching a first-round win over Wang Xinyu.
However, the lucky loser's run stopped on Friday, as Navarro took charge in their first career meeting. Navarro fired 25 winners in the match, more than doubling Rakhimova's 12. Navarro also converted five of 11 break points.
This is Navarro's first main-draw win at the Foro Italico. In her main-draw debut last year, the American had a bye as the No. 21 seed but lost in the second round to Paula Badosa, who was then ranked No. 126.
Now, Navarro and Badosa are ranked next to each other inside the PIF WTA Rankings Top 10, at World No. 9 and No. 10 respectively.
Navarro's next match will be a third-round meeting with No. 22 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark. Tauson won their only previous meeting, which came at a clay-court ITF Challenger event in Madrid two years ago.
[11] Elena Rybakina def. Eva Lys, 7-6(3), 6-2
Bianca Andreescu def. [20] Donna Vekic 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
In the evening, Grand Slam champions Rybakina and Andreescu picked up their second-round victories nearly simultaneously, and they will now face each other for the second time during this year's clay-court swing.
Rybakina of Kazakhstan had to twice fight back from a break down in the first set before clinching a 1-hour and 25-minute victory over top German Eva Lys.
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, won her only clay-court WTA 1000 title at Rome in 2023. She has collected two WTA 1000 titles overall, with her other one coming that same year at Indian Wells.
Canada's Andreescu has also won two WTA 1000 titles, both in 2019 at Indian Wells and Toronto. She is still alive for a third after her 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 upset of No. 20 seed Donna Vekic of Croatia on Friday.
The bad news for Andreescu is that Rybakina has won all three times they have played, including in the second round of Madrid a couple weeks ago. In fact, Rybakina has never lost a set to 2019 US Open champion Andreescu.
