By the time the quarterfinals rolled around in Madrid a couple weeks ago, only two Top 10 seeds were in contention for the title.<\/p>\n
It’s been a little less chaotic at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where six Top 10 seeds made up the final eight. But the second of back-to-back WTA 1000s hasn’t been without surprises and drama. The World No. 1 got knocked off, as did the defending champion, and a veteran reminded us all that in her final season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, she might be playing the best tennis of her life.<\/p>\n
These were the most notable moments, and players, through the first four rounds in Rome.<\/p>\n
Star of the Week
\nSorana Cirstea<\/p>\n
Can she really retire when she’s playing this well?<\/p>\n
Yes, she can, she reminded us in her press conference on Monday. And that’s a reminder for all of us to play close attention, because the 36-year-old just keeps on winning in her final season on tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After dominating Tatjana Maria 6-2, 6-0 in the first round, Cirstea upset Aryna Sabalenka for her first career win over a World No. 1. (In six previous matches against top-ranked players, she had never won a set.) Sabalenka was in total control early, leading 6-0, 2-0, but the Romanian won six of the next seven games to level the match.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the third, Cirstea broke Sabalenka three times for the narrow 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She followed that up with another upset, beating 13th seed Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-4 to reach her first career Rome quarterfinal in her ninth appearance. Then on Tuesday, she beat Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets to reach the semis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At No. 27 in the PIF WTA Rankings, Cirstea is just six spots from her career high, which she set 13 years ago.<\/p>\n
Breakthrough of the Week
\nNikola Bartunkova<\/p>\n
Though her run came to an end on Monday, lucky loser Nikola Bartunkova had a dream week in Rome. After losing in qualifying, she made the most of her second chance by beating Tyra Caterina Grant in her opening match, then upsetting former Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the third round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the 20-year-old’s first Round of 16 appearance at a WTA 1000.<\/p>\n
Lucky loser Bartunkova stuns Keys in Rome, into first WTA 1000 last 16<\/p>\n
Upset of the Week
\nSorana Cirstea d. Aryna Sabalenka, Rome third round<\/p>\n
This match would be an upset under any circumstance. But when you consider that Sabalenka was up a set and a break, and Cirstea had never beaten a World No. 1 in 20 years on tour, it makes it downright stunning. (It’s also not every day that you see Sabalenka get broken six times.)<\/p>\n
The third set was particularly thrilling, as Cirstea failed to serve out the match at 5-4. But she broke right back for the 6-5 lead, then took the 12th game of the set to close out one of the best wins of her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cirstea scores first win over a No. 1 in Rome stunner against Sabalenka<\/p>\n
Comeback of the Week
\nAnna Kalinskaya d. Katerina Siniakova, Rome second round<\/p>\n
In the first round, Anastasia Zakharova saved five match points in a come-from-behind 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) win over Dayana Yastremska.<\/p>\n
Two days later, Anna Kalinskaya topped that, saving nine match points in a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Katerina Siniakova.<\/p>\n
Kalinskaya trailed 5-3 in both the second and third sets in a match that lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes.<\/p>\n
Watch all nine of Kalinskaya’s match point saves against Siniakova in Rome<\/p>\n
First of the Week
\nNoemi Basiletti gets win No. 1<\/p>\n
Basiletti, who came into this tournament ranked No. 427, beat lucky loser Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-4 in the first WTA Tour main-draw match of her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old had never beaten a Top 100 player prior to Rome. Including her wins over Emiliana Arango and Daria Snigur in qualifying, she now has three.<\/p>\n
On WTA debut, Italian qualifier Basiletti upsets Tomljanovic in Rome<\/p>\n
Shot of the Week
\nEva Lys’ forehand pass on the run<\/p>\n
Serving for the game early in the first set, Katie Boulter put Eva Lys in a difficult spot with a crosscourt backhand into the corner. Lys slid and hit a one-handed backhand into the middle of the court, and Boulter responded with a running forehand to the other corner. Lys sprinted to get to it and hit an angled forehand winner that landed just in front of the line.<\/p>\n
Hot shot: Lys rockets forehand pass against Boulter<\/p>\n
Stat of the Week
\n17 straight quarterfinals<\/p>\n
Sabalenka’s loss to Cirstea was her first defeat before the quarterfinals in more than a year, since losing to Clara Tauson in the Round of 16 in Dubai, back in February of 2025.<\/p>\n
It snapped a streak of 17 consecutive tournaments that the World No. 1 had reached at least the final eight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dominant Performance of the Week
\nJessica Pegula d. Rebeka Masarova, Rome third round<\/p>\n
It doesn’t get much more dominant than this. Fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula didn’t relinquish a game in her 6-0, 6-0 win over qualifier Rebeka Masarova. It was her first 6-0, 6-0 win at the WTA Tour level, and first since 2018, when she laid a pair of bagels on Francesca Fusinato at a Tampa ITF W15 tournament.<\/p>\n
Including her previous match against Zeynep Sonmez, in which she won the second set 6-0, Pegula won 19 consecutive games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch: All 12 game points from Pegula’s whitewash of Masarova in Rome<\/p>\n
Social Moment of the Week
\nWhat would you change … if anything?<\/p>\n
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?<\/p>\n
It’s a question everyone asks themselves at some point, and we posed it to Sabalenka in Rome.<\/p>\n
And here are more answers from other WTA Tour stars.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time the quarterfinals rolled around in Madrid a couple weeks ago, only two Top 10 seeds…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":791378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[62,1464,4063,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-791377","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}