The rain that dogged Madrid last week arrived in Rome on Wednesday, leaving a backlog of matches at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia still to finish on Thursday.
“I think she’s incredible [Iga Swiatek]. The way she’s able to maintain being No 1, and constantly do well at all the tournaments, is something that I, honestly, can’t think of, or can’t fathom, back when I was No 1 for, like, five seconds [smiling]. Yeah, I mean, I think she’s great for the sport. I also think watching Sabalenka doing so well is super, super fun. I hope that I’m able to play them both one day.” – Naomi Osaka
Before the rain set in, Naomi Osaka eased her way past the dangerous Frenchwoman, Clara Burel 7-6(2) 6-1, the first match she has played at the Foro Italico in 3 years.
Osaka failed to serve out the first set at 5-3, but managed to avoid further trouble by taking the breaker.
“I think, obviously, I was up 5-3, I was serving for the set, and I lost that,” Osaka said afterwards. “I think just being able to hang in there and, eventually, close it on my terms is something that I’m very proud of myself for.”
Osaka looked comfortable beating Burel, who is ranked 45 in the world, in an hour and 24 minutes.
It is the 26-year old’s first win over a Top 50 player on clay since defeating Victoria Azarenka at the 2019 French Open.
Now ranked 173 after a maternity break, Osaka, who reached the quarter-finals in Rome in 2019, faced Burel for the first time, and had to steady herself after a dip in the late stages of the second set.
Having exchanged 7 consecutive holds of serve to open the match, Osaka broke Burel for a 5-3 lead and held a set point at 40-30, but a series of forehand misfires gifted the Frenchwoman the break back.
In the breaker, the Japanese elevated her game at 2-2 to race away with it, closing the set with a clean ace.
“I thought the first set was really tough,” Osaka said. “I’m really glad I was able to close it in two. Overall I think, mentally, I tried to stay as strong as I can, so I’m really happy about that.”
Osaka continued her baseline dominance in the second to seal the win in 84 minutes, finishing with 27 winners, including 8 aces, and holding Burel to just 10 winners, while she successful in her forays to the net, winning 7 of 10 points in the forecourt.
After her 1st-round win, she was asked what she thinks about Swiatek and her reign as the World No 1.
“I think she’s incredible,” she said in her post-match press conference. “The way she’s able to maintain being No 1, and constantly do well at all the tournaments, is something that I, honestly, can’t think of, or can’t fathom, back when I was No 1 for, like, five seconds [smiling].
“Yeah, I mean, I think she’s great for the sport. I also think watching Sabalenka doing so well is super, super fun,” she added. “I hope that I’m able to play them both one day.”
Next up for Osaka, now, is the in-form Marta Kostyuk, the 19th-seed from Ukraine, who reached the final of the indoor clay court event in Stuttgart, against whom the Japanese lost to in their only other previous meeting, in 3 sets at the 2020 US Open.
Another Grand Slam champion, Sofia Kenin, ruffled feathers before the American recorded her first tour-level win since January, defeating Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, 6-3 6-2.
While Kenin found her best form against the local favourite, it was by no means an easy affair in front of a partisan crowd, and with a rain delay in the second set, but the American handled the distractions well enough.
After a shaky start, when Bronzetti bound ahead, Kenin quickly turned a 1-3 deficit into a 5-3 lead before pocketing the opener.
The second set proved similar, with both battling through the early games before Kenin was able to break free to finish off the match, but the occasion was marred by the American yelling obscenities at the umpire after the match supervisor instructed for play to continue in the rain.
The Italian crowd showered boos on Kenin following the outburst, to which the fuming Russia-born American shouted ‘F… you’ at the spectators.
The 25-year-old, who won the Australian Open in 2020, will face No 8 seed Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, who bears the moniker Minister of Happiness, in round 2.
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko eliminated Donna Vekic from Croatia, 6-2 3-6 7-6(5), to set up a 2nd-round enounter with her countrywoman, Anhelina Kalinina, the No 30 seed, next.
Tsurenko thrives in Italy, and while she stops short of calling it her adopted homeland, the Ukrainian has a long love affair with the country that dates back more than a decade.
From 4-1 up in the final set, Tsurenko needed to stave off another come-back by the Croatian in a deciding match tiebreak, where she was 6-2 ahead.
Despite breaking serve 3 times in the match, Tsurenko praised one of Vekic’s chief weapons.
“I’m so jealous of the serve that Donna has! She’s serving unbelievably good, and it’s so tough because you don’t have a rhythm to play against someone like her,” said Tsurenko. “Plus, you always have this pressure of her serve and her full power return.
“When she’s going for a winner you know it’s going to be a full-power winner. With players like that, you always have to stay aggressive and, kind of, have to hit first, and also get back everything that you can, and be defensive when necessary.
“We’ve played a few matches against each other before and it always went to tiebreaks, or a deciding set. She’s a super tough opponent.”
Tsurenko’s win sets up a 2nd-round meeting with 2023 Rome finalist Kalinina, who also holds Italy as a special place in her heart.
