Italian Open: Rybakina overcomes home favourite Paolini to make third round

Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 7 seed, won against Italian Jasmine Paolini 7-6 (4), 6-1 to reach the first round of the Italian Open at the Foro Italico in Rome on Friday evening.

In a tight and nervy first set, there were some uncharacteristic errors coming from the racket of the Wimbledon champion. Paolini also enjoyed the vocal home support of those Italian fans who did stay into the night session for this match, and she rewarded them by taking the first set into a tie-break.

Rybakina’s experience and composure came to the fore in the breaker, however, before she put her foot on the pedal to accelerate to just a second clay-court win this season.

Rybakina, ranked No 6, will play Russian Anna Kalinskaya next. The Russian knocked the Kazakh out of the Madrid Open last month.

Paolini, ranked No 65, beat Chinese Xinyu Wang (6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2) 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):

• Marketa Vondrousova beat Bianca Andreescu (24): 6-0, 6-1
• Lesia Tsurenko beat Bernarda Pera (28): 6-4, 6-4
• Daria Kasatkina (8) beat Lisa Pigato (WC): 6-1, 6-2
• Camila Giorgi beat Ekaterina Alexandrova (15): 6-4, 6-2
• Barbora Krejcikova (10) beat Danka Kovinic: 6-2, 4-1 ret.
• Jelena Ostapenko (20) beat Sorana Cirstea: 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
• Anna Kalinskaya beat Elise Mertens (25): 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
• Paula Badosa beat Ons Jabeur (4): 6-1, 6-4
• Marta Kostyuk (32) beat Claire Liu: 6-0, 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 6-0, 6-0
• Donna Vekic (21) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Karolina Muchova beat Martina Trevisan (18): 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
• Julia Grabher beat Jil Teichmann (26): 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-3
• Maria Sakkari (9) beat Barbora Strycova: 6-1, 6-3
• Liudmila Samsonova (16) beat Anett Kontaveit: 6-3, 6-3
• Caroline Garcia (5) beat Ana Bogdan: 6-4, 3-6, 7-5
• Sofia Kenin beat Aryna Sabalenka (2): 7-6 (4), 6-2
• 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 (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