Victoria Azarenka victorious over Venus Williams in Rome
Thursday 17 September 2020 11:50, UK
Victoria Azarenka, the recent US Open finalist, showed no signs of weariness as she beat Venus Williams 7-6 (10-7) 6-2 at the Italian Open in Rome.
The Belarusian continues an impressive comeback at the age 31 and pushed to one side the 6-2 head-to-head advantage Williams held over her.
Fresh off the back of her first Grand Slam final in seven years, Azarenka showed her determination to break Williams early in the first set and create a 3-0 lead.
She relinquished and then reclaimed her hold on the set, before needing a tie-break to secure it. The second set was a more straight-forward affair and she will now face the third seed Sofia Kenin in the next round.
"I felt that this was a great match for me to figure it out... the first match on clay," Azarenka said in her post-match press conference.
"Venus played a really good match, it was good to see her also adapting to clay, changing and trying different shots. So, I'm pretty happy."
Elina Svitolina returned to the WTA Tour and restarted on the right note with a 6-3 7-6 (7-4) win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The fourth seed spent an hour and 45 minutes on court and saved seven of the 10 break points she faced.
Svitolina will meet either Anett Kontaveit or Svetlana Kuznetsova next.
The top seed Simona Halep overcame a couple of hiccups to beat wild card Jasime Paolini 6-3 6-4.
The 28-year-old Wimbledon champion has only lost twice this year but found herself a break down in both sets before she recovered to seal her first victory since winning the Prague Open a month ago.
Defending champion Karolina Pliskova beat fellow Czech Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-3. She hit 26 winners as she overpowered her opponent from the back and was content with her work.
"It was not an easy job, but I thought I played quite good today," Pliskova said to the WTA's website after.
"I was feeling the ball, I was serving quite well, and in the important moments I just went for it. So it paid off."
Thursday's order of play features Coca Gauff facing Garbine Muguruza and Johanna Konta will start her campaign against Irina-Camelia Begu.
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