Rejuvenated Kenin stuns No 2 seed Sabalenka in second round in Rome

American Sofia Kenin turned back the clock at the Italian Open on Thursday, stunning second seed and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (4), 6-2 to reach the third round in Rome.

In the tennis wilderness for most of the past two years, the 24-year-old was in brilliant form as she upended Sabalenka, who won the title in Madrid last weekend. It’s her first win over a top-10 player since she beat Ash Barty at the Australian Open in 2020, when she won her only Grand Slam title to date.

Kenin, who fell outside the top 300 at one stage in 2022, will face Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, the No 30 seed, next. She’ll climb to around No 117 thanks to her win.

Ahead of her victory, the American edged out Spaniard Cristina Bucsa (6-3, 6-7 (8), 7-5).

Rome WTA 1000, other second-round 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: thursday
• Camila Osorio (Q) beat Petra Martic (29): 6-4, 6-2
• Anastasia Potapova (23) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 6-4, 6-4
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (12) beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Q): 6-2, 6-3
• Taylor Townsend (Q) beat Jessica Pegula (3): 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng (22) beat Alize Cornet: 6-3, 7-6 (2)
• Anhelina Kalinina 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