Italian Open: Azarenka beats Stephens in battle of former slam champions to reach third round

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 14 seed, beat American Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the Italian Open at the Foro Italico in Rome on Thursday.

Azarenka, ranked No 17, will face the winner of the match between Pole qualifier Magdalena Frech and American Madison Keys, the No 19 seed, next.

Stephens, ranked No 36, won against Argentinian Nadia Podoroska (6-4, 6-1) in the previous round of the Rome tournament.

Rome WTA 1000, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 3.572.618, most recent results first):

• Lisa Pigato vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Jil Teichmann vs. Julia Grabher
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Danka Kovinic
• Camila Giorgi vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Martina Trevisan vs. Karolina Muchova
• Claire Liu vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Ons Jabeur vs. Paula Badosa
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Elena Rybakina
• Elise Mertens vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Maria Sakkari vs. Barbora Strycova
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Donna Vekic vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Bernarda Pera
• Iga Swiatek vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Sofia Kenin vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Caroline Garcia vs. Ana Bogdan
• Taylor Townsend vs. Jessica Pegula
• Camila Osorio vs. Petra Martic
• Alize Cornet vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Anastasia Potapova vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto
• Anhelina Kalinina vs. Anna Blinkova
• Magdalena Frech vs. Madison Keys
• Elena-Gabriela Ruse vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Catherine McNally vs. Marie Bouzkova
• Magda Linette vs. Linda Noskova
• Coco Gauff vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Xiyu Wang: thursday
• Anna Bondar (Q) beat Karolina Pliskova (13): 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Nuria Parrizas Diaz vs. Veronika Kudermetova: thursday