THE beginning of the Italian Open Round of 32 saw a couple of intriguing results, and while all seeds bar one head through to the Round of 16, there were very little straightforward matches played out. Also on day five, Victoria Azarenka and Venus Williams went head to head in a delayed first round match, with Azarenka deliberately handed a first day bye after her US Open final berth, which appeared to be forgotten when the draw came out. Nevertheless, the Belarusian overcame a tough first set from Williams to run out victor in just over two hours, 7-6 6-2. 

Heading back to the Round of 32, Simona Halep, Petra Kvitova and Elina Svitolina were all quick to put wins on the board after first round byes, all disposing of their opposition in straight sets. Halep and Pliskova came away with similar outcomes, with top seed Halep defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-4, making the most of the Italian’s unforced error rate and seven double faults, and despite Paolini’s intensity and fight back. Pliskova had little trouble against compatriot Barbora Strycova, utilising her heavy serve to win 76 per cent of her first serve points in the 6-3 6-3 win.

Svitolina had it relatively easy in the first set against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, before the Russian fought hard to regain some control in the second, taking the Ukrainian to a tiebreaker but to no avail, seeing Svitolina run away with the 6-3 7-6 victory. While Pavlyuchenkova had some patches of brilliance, Svitolina was far more efficient off both her service and return games.

Sixth seed Belinda Bencic was not quite so lucky, downed by qualifier Danka Kovinic in the shortest match of the day, just 71 minutes. It was Kovinic’s second top 10 win of her career, making the most of Bencic’s first match since play resumed, reigning supreme with the 6-3 6-1 victory.

“She’s a great player and I expected a big battle today, but I came through the qualies and I really feel confident in myself,” Kovinic said after the match. “I think that I had a little bit of advantage on the court because I played a few matches here on these courts, and she’s just coming to restart the season. I’m pleased with my game and I feel good on the court.” 

The longest match of the day award went to a tight two-setter between Elena Rybakina and Marie Bouzkova, with the two unable to be split for much of the match. With 20 ranking places between them and Rybakina seeded 10th overall, the Kazakh talent reigned supreme in the 7-5 7-6 matchup, but both sets were just as tight and unrelenting as the final score in just under two and a half hours. Meanwhile, fellow seed Elise Mertens was not quite convincing in her pursuit against Magda Linette but came away with the 6-2 6-4 win.

In a day of long-form matches, Dayana Yastremska overcame Amanda Anisimova in a tense three-setter, turning the tides after allowing Anisimova to break the first set and winning the second set tiebreaker to come away with a 4-6 7-7 6-4 victory in two hours and 18 minutes. Ana Blinkova joined Yastremska in the third round with a tough three-set victory of her own, defeating Aliona Bolsova after a similar start, with a huge tie-breaking final set seeing the Russian head through.