Saturday at the Foro Italico in Rome
Iga Swiatek had to dig herself out of a second set hole to survive Yulia Putintseva and book herself a place in the 4th-round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, while Coco Gauff found herself bagelled in the middle set before seeing off Jaqueline Cristian, and Zheng Qinwen had to come back from a set down to beat Linda Noskova.
Seeds 1, 3 and 7 may have navigated themselves safely into the Last 16, but Marketa Vondrousova, Daria Kasatkina and Beatriz Haddad Maia, seeded 6, 10 and 12 respectively, were sent packing.
Swiatek, the World No 1, is pretty much unmatched on clay, but even the best can lose focus, which is what happened in her 3rd-round match against the tricky Putintseva, who represents Kazakhstan.
In fact, the 22-year old Pole was within a few points of slipping to 1-5 down in the second set, when she woke up enough to right the ship, comfortably winning the next 5 games to take the match, 6-3 6-4, after an hour and 46 minutes.
Iga Świątek Interview
“I’m happy with the way I played, maybe besides this beginning of the second set,” she said afterwards. “I’m happy I came back. I knew what I wanted to improve. At the end I’m happy that I finished in two sets.”
The two-time Rome winner is looking to add a third trophy in Rome to her first Madrid title last week, and if she can pull it off, she will become just the third player to win both Rome and Madrid in the same year.
Coco Gauff’s Match
Coco Gauff, the World No 3, struggled and committed 15 double-faults before notching up an erratic 6-1 0-6 6-3 win over lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian from Romania.
Summary
Later, on social media, Putintseva was accused of poor sportsmanship after appearing to mock Swiatek’s serve, moving her head up and down in the motion that the Pole adopts before her deliveries.
Swiatek moves on to an enticing encounter with former World No 1 Angelique Kerber after the German, who has not lost a set through her 3 rounds this week, eased past Aliaksandra Sasnovich from Belarus, 6-3 7-6(4), after an hour and 25 minutes. Coco Gauff came through a scrappy 3-setter against Jaqueline Cristian to reach the Last 16 and a match against Paula Badosa.
Paula Badosa
Gauff, a Rome semi-finalist in 2021, is into the Round of 16 at the event for the third time in her career, where she will square off against former World No 2 Paula Badosa from Spain, who edged past Russia’s Diana Shnaider, 5-7 6-4 6-4, earlier on Saturday.
Naomi Osaka Progresses
Also moving on was 7th seed Zheng Qinwen of China, who came from a set down to beat Czech Linda Noskova, the 29th seed, 3-6 6-1 6-2, in a first-time meeting between the two.
Osaka tallied 5 aces and converted 5 of 12 break chances.
This win is particularly impressive as Kasatkina is one of the best clay court players on tour, and took the wind out of Osaka’s sails in a practice match in Madrid in which the Russian ‘smacked’ the former World No 1, according to the Japanese’s account.
