Italian Open: Azarenka moves into third round

Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 24 seed, beat Pole Magda Linette 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the round of 32 of the Italian Open at the Foro Italico in Roma on Friday afternoon.

Azarenka, ranked No 24, will face the winner of the match between Egyptian Mayar Sherif and Italian Jasmine Paolini, the No 11 seed, next.

Azarenka now has the second-most wins in clay-court WTA 1000 events since the format was introduced in 2009 – 46, level with Maria Sharapova.

Linette, ranked No 51, won against Chinese Lin Zhu (6-3, 6-2) in the previous round of the Rome tournament.

Roma WTA 1000, other second-round results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 5.509.771, most recent results first):

• Mayar Sherif vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Katie Volynets vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Rebecca Sramkova vs. Katie Boulter
• Elina Svitolina vs. Sara Errani: friday
• Anhelina Kalinina (30) beat Lesia Tsurenko: 2-0 ret.
• Caroline Garcia (22) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-2, 7-6 (5)
• Dayana Yastremska (32) beat Laura Siegemund (Q): 4-6, 7-5, 6-2
• Anna Kalinskaya (23) beat Clara Tauson (Q): 6-1, 6-2
• Jelena Ostapenko (9) beat Anastasia Potapova: 6-4, 6-2
• Sofia Kenin beat Ons Jabeur (8): 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
• Irina-Camelia Begu beat Oceane Dodin (LL): 5-2 ret.
• Danielle Collins (13) beat Anna Blinkova: 6-4, 0-0 ret.
• Maria Sakkari (5) beat Varvara Gracheva (Q): 6-2, 6-2
• Sara Sorribes Tormo beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (20): 6-3, 1-6, 7-5
• Elise Mertens (27) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-1, 6-4
• Paula Badosa beat Emma Navarro (21): 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Bernarda Pera (Q): 6-0, 6-2
• Yulia Putintseva beat Sloane Stephens (31): 6-3, 6-2
• Marketa Vondrousova (6) beat Ana Bogdan: 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
• Sorana Cirstea (28) beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (Q): 7-5, 6-0
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Magdalena Frech: 6-3, 6-3
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (12) beat Xinyu Wang: 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Madison Keys (18) beat Camila Osorio: 6-0, 4-6, 6-3
• Jaqueline Cristian (LL) beat Elina Avanesyan: 5-7, 6-2, 6-2
• Naomi Osaka beat Marta Kostyuk (19): 6-3, 6-2
• Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Q) beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (14): 6-0, 6-1
• Qinwen Zheng (7) beat Shelby Rogers: 6-2, 6-0
• Linda Noskova (29) beat Lucrezia Stefanini (WC): 6-3, 7-6 (1)
• Daria Kasatkina (10) beat Tatjana Maria: 7-5, 6-1
• Diana Shnaider beat Liudmila Samsonova (15): 6-1, 6-3
• Angelique Kerber beat Veronika Kudermetova (17): 6-3, 6-0