May 15, (THEWILL) – Elena Rybakina stormed to her first-ever quarter-finals of the Italian Open, winning her match against Marketa Vondrousova 6-3 6-3.
The world number seven claimed five of her seven break points, compared to Vondrousova’s two out of eight, in an impressive display of tennis. The match started with Rybakina conceding the first game, but she immediately broke back in the second. She then broke Vondrousova’s serve again in the fourth game and successfully recovered from five break points by her opponent.
The first set ended 35 minutes later, with Rybakina winning 6-3. In the second set, Rybakina dominated by taking four consecutive games and securing her place in the quarter-finals after winning in 1 hour and 14 minutes. The 22-year-old therefore qualifies to face the winner of the Iga Swiatek versus Donna Vekic game.
In other results from the Open, Jelena Ostapenko progressed to her second quarter-final of the season after defeating number eight seed Daria Kasatkina 6-4 4-6 6-0. Meanwhile, number 22 seed Zheng Qinwen reached the second WTA 1000 quarter-finals of her career after beating compatriot Wang Xiyu 6-4 3-6 6-1 in two hours and 30 minutes.
It means Wang will next face number 11 seed Veronika Kudermetova, who needed just 79 minutes to beat number 27 seed Marie Bouzkova 6-2 6-2. Anhelina Kalinina defeated Madison Keys, and Beatriz Haddad Maia beat Camila Osorio to progress to the next round.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
