No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka opened her Internazionali BNL d’Italia campaign with a smooth 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Anastasia Potapova in 63 minutes.
Rome: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Fresh off lifting the Madrid trophy for the third time last week, Sabalenka has extended her winning streak to seven matches. Having also been runner-up in Stuttgart last month to Jelena Ostapenko, her clay record this year is now 9-1.
Sabalenka is looking to back up a Madrid title with a deep run in Rome for the first time. As Madrid champion for the first time in 2021, she fell in the third round of Rome to Coco Gauff; in 2023, she was ousted in her second-round opener by Sofia Kenin. Last year marked Sabalenka’s best performance across the clay-court WTA 1000 events: she was runner-up at both, losing each final to Iga Swiatek.
More to come…