IT was a tough day at the office for many at the Italian Open fantasy tournament, with all bar three matches going to three sets. Five top seeds are still sitting pretty following the conclusion of the Round of 16, while four quality competitors were bundled out.

Second and third seeds Elina Svitolina and Simona Halep continued their strong performances this round, collecting two of the three straight sets wins of the day. Svitolina had a challenge early from sixteenth seed Madison Keys but brought it home in the second, while Halep put on an almost identical performance in the following match, reigning supreme over Elise Mertens. Meanwhile, world number one Ash Barty followed suit with a come-from-behind win against Anett Kontaveit. While Kontaveit was clinical to begin, she could not outlast Barty and went down in the two hour 6-7 6-4 6-2 clash.

Arguably the biggest scalp of the day was Garbine Muguruza’s three-set masterpiece against the ever-threatening Petra Kvitova. While Muguruza currently ranks higher than the Czech talent, Kvitova has been in excellent form recently and will be highly disappointed in this performance, going down to the Spaniard 6-3 4-6 6-3. Joining Kvitova on the sidelines is fifth seed American Sofia Kenin after going down to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, 6-2 5-7 6-2. Apart from a sloppy second set where she gave up a couple of points to errors, Sabalenka was clinical in victory. The final seed in Elena Rybakina went down to a dominant Sloane Stephens in straight sets, with the qualifying American impressive from the get-go and looking like a threatening figure to come up against next round.

In the last two matches, unseeded pair Petra Martic and qualifier, Tamara Zidansek both prevailed in three-set victories to head through to the quarter finals. Tomorrow’s draw sees a massive battle between Muguruza and Stephens, while Zidansek and Martic are unlucky to draw the top two seeds so will need to pull strong performances out of the bag. The final match will see Halep take on Sabalenka in the only seed versus seed match of the day.

ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:

[1] Ash Barty (AUS) defeated Anett Kontaveit (EST) 6-7 6-4 6-2
[2] Elina Svitolina (UKR) defeated [16] Madison Keys (USA) 7-5 6-3
[3] Simona Halep (ROU) defeated Elise Mertens (BEL) 7-6 6-3
[10] Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) defeated [5] Sofia Kenin (USA) 6-2 5-7 6-2
[6] Garbine Muguruza (ESP) defeated [9] Petra Kvitova (CZE) 6-3 4-6 6-3
[Q] Sloane Stephens (USA) defeated [15] Elena Rybakina (KAZ) 6-3 6-3
Petra Martic (CRO) defeated Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) 6-3 5-7 6-2
[Q] Tamara Zidansek (SLO) defeated Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 1-6 6-3 6-2