ROME: Three-time champion Maria Sharapova pulled off a tough 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Australian 16th-seeded Ashleigh Barty for a fine start in the Italian Open yesterday.
The Russian’s three-set win set her up for an intriguing second-round meeting with Dominika Cibulkova.
Sharapova’s 34th career match win in the Italian capital came after a two-and-a-half hour marathon and a lengthy rain delay on Next Gen Arena in the first-ever meeting between the two players.
Making her main draw debut in Rome, Barty stretched the five-time Grand Slam champion to a decider – just as she did to Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki last week in Rome – but again came off second-best in a lengthy defeat.
The world No. 18 put up stern resistance against the 2011, 2012 and 2015 champion in the match’s final game, saving two match points, but struck back-to-back unforced errors to put Sharapova safely through to the second round.
“I kind of felt like I played three different matches within the match because of the way the court played, the way that she played, the shadows, the little bit of a breeze that we had out there – a lot going on,” Sharapova said after the match.
“I think it was a really good way to end the match, to get that win. I felt like there’s a lot of positives at the end of that match.”
Also advancing into the second round were 11th-seeded Angelique Kerber who defeated Kazakh qualifier Zarina Diyas 6-2, 7-6 (6), and 14th-seeded Daria Kasatkina, a 6-0, 6-4 winner against Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic.
Hungary’s Timea Babos beat Sara Errani (ITA) 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), and Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese-Taipeh downed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-2, 6-4.
Maria Sakkari of Greece held off Dutch Kiki Bertens 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, while Irina Begu rallied past Chinese Shuai Peng 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. American Danielle Collins eased past Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, while Russian Elena Vesnina eliminated German Laura Siegemund 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova outplayed Slovakia’s Polona Hercog 6-2, 6-4, while Latvian 15th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova beat Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) 6-3, 3-0 retired.
Fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia advanced to the third round past China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 7-5.
In the day’s other second-round match, fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraineased past Petra Martic of Croatia 6-1, 6-2.
Meanwhile, French tennis player Alize Cornet has escaped a possible ban for missing three doping tests, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) confirmed yesterday.
One of Cornet’s lawyers, Alexis Gramblat, had earlier said that an independent tribunal “found that on the third occasion, the tester had not made every reasonable effort to find her”.
The ITF has 21 days to appeal. After that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and French Anti-Doping Agency have another 21 days to appeal if they so wish.