Magical Townsend knocks out third seed Pegula in round two in Rome

Qualifier Taylor Townsend caused the biggest shock of this year’s Italian Open to date as she upended third seed Jessica Pegula 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 at the Foro Italico in Rome on Thursday evening.

Pegula hit back from the loss of the opening set and saved a match point at 5-2 down in the third but could not stop Townsend, the world No 168, from finishing off her best-ever win, in rankings terms, on the WTA Tour.

“I’m just really proud of myself,” said Townsend, who had her first child in 2021 and only returned to the Tour a year later.

“I’ve been working really hard over the past couple of years to come back. Moments like these are what it’s all about. Two years ago, a year ago, when I started back in April, I had these types of moments in my mind where I wanted to be in these types of situations.

“To be here and to be able to come through and play the way that I did, it really means a lot.”

Townsend, who will rise to around No 131 in the rankings and who is one of many mothers on the Tour, will play Chinese Xiyu Wang next.

Townsend edged out Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure (4-6, 6-1, 7-5) in the previous round of the Rome tournament.

Rome WTA 1000, other 64 results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 3.572.618, most recent results first):

• Jasmine Paolini vs. Elena Rybakina
• Marketa Vondrousova vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Lisa Pigato vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Barbora Krejcikova vs. Danka Kovinic
• Camila Giorgi vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
• Lesia Tsurenko vs. Bernarda Pera
• Ons Jabeur vs. Paula Badosa
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Jelena Ostapenko
• Elise Mertens vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Iga Swiatek vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Martina Trevisan vs. Karolina Muchova
• Claire Liu vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Donna Vekic vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
• Jil Teichmann vs. Julia Grabher
• Maria Sakkari vs. Barbora Strycova
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Caroline Garcia vs. Ana Bogdan
• Sofia Kenin vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Camila Osorio vs. Petra Martic: thursday
• Anastasia Potapova (23) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-4, 6-4
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (12) beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Q): 6-2, 6-3
• Alize Cornet vs. Qinwen Zheng: thursday
• Anhelina Kalinina (30) beat Anna Blinkova: 6-2, 6-2
• Madison Keys (19) beat Magdalena Frech (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Marie Bouzkova (27) beat Catherine McNally: 6-4, 6-3
• Magda Linette (17) beat Linda Noskova: 7-6 (4), 6-1
• Coco Gauff (6) beat Yulia Putintseva: 6-0, 6-1
• Victoria Azarenka (14) beat Sloane Stephens: 6-4, 6-3
• Xiyu Wang beat Irina-Camelia Begu (31): 6-4, 7-5
• Anna Bondar (Q) beat Karolina Pliskova (13): 7-6 (5), 6-2
• Veronika Kudermetova (11) beat Nuria Parrizas Diaz: 7-5, 6-2