KAZAKH young gun Elena Rybakina has taken just 61 minutes to take apart fellow top 30 player, Ekaterina Alexandrova at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in a stunning role reversal. Just a fortnight earlier, Alexandrova defeated Rybakina in straight sets at the Western & Southern Open, with the 21-year-old winning just one match in her past four stretching back to Qatar earlier in the year. It follows on from Rybakia’s straight sets defeat to Alexandrova in the Shenzhen Open final on January 11.

This time however, it was Rybakina who had found the formula to success, destroying Alexandrova in just over an hour, 6-0 6-4. The 10th seed raced through the first round match in unbelievable style, two minutes faster than Danka Kovinic‘s 6-1 6-0 rout over Belgian Julia Goerges. The Belgian’s defeat might have copped more attention had it not been for Rybakina’s remarkable win, and the upset of the day.

That upset came courtesy of Spaniard, Aliona Bolsova who came from behind to defeat 13th seed Alison Riske in three sets. The match lasted two hours and 52 minutes with Bolsova claiming a 5-7 7-6 6-3 victory. The 22-year-old had never beaten anyone inside the top 50 until her victory over Riske, and backed up from her stunning qualifying rounds where she dropped just six games across two matches. Now she will take on Anna Blinkova who defeated Jil Teichmann in the first round of the tournament.

Another young gun who turned the table on a conqueror from a couple of weeks ago was Dayana Yastremska who defeated Italian Camila Giorgi in three sets after losing to her a fortnight ago. The Ukranian 20-year-old won 7-5 6-7 6-4 in two hours and 33 minutes to move through to the Round of 32. She admitted it was far from her best performance, but was just pleased to get through to the next round.

“How else can I feel after a three hour match but tired?” Yastremska said post-match. “Still, it’s a win. Maybe not the best win, but it’s a win!”

The Ukrainian actually had match point in the second set prior to the tiebreak, but Giorgi managed to compose herself and then win the tiebreak to force a third set.

“I felt so bad during the match,” Yastremska said. “My game was ok, and I really felt my shots, but it was weird. I had so many double faults, more than I’ve ever had in my life. “I hit three double faults in a row, and something was going on that was just weird. “My shoe broke, and I had a match point in the second set like in Palermo, but lost the tie-break.

“I had good preparation. “After America, I took two days off to recover my knee and foot. “I had three days to practice, which was really nice, and had more great practices here. “I felt good in my shots, but there was something about the situation that felt unpredictable and unexpected. “I would play well for a few games and then hit three double faults and missed a couple returns. “I guess everyone had days like these.”

In other results, 11th seed Elise Mertens cruised through to victory over Su-Wei Hsieh 6-3 6-1, while Amanda Anisimova took down 16th seed Donna Vekic in two tiebreakers. Other winners were Magda Linette, Barbora Strycova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Marie Bouzkova and Jasmine Paolini.