Top seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula are out of the WTA 1000 Rome Open, losing to the Americans Sofia Kenin and Taylor Townsend, respectively.
The 2nd-seeded Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) lost to Sofia Kenin in the second round of the clay tournament by 0-2 (6:7, 2:6) in 1:39 hours. The Belarusian tennis player had her chances in the first set, despite being catching up during all the time. Finally she lost the tiebreak by 7-4. The second set started equally, but Sofia Kenin won 4 games in row in the end and closed the set by 6:2, thus winning the match.
In the next round, the American tennis player will face Anhelina Kalinina (ukraine), who defeated Anna Blinkova (Russia) by 2-0 (6:2, 6:2).
Taylor Townsend achieved a very prestigious victory versus the 3rd-seeded Jessica Pegula by 2-1 (6:2, 3:6, 6:3) in 1:56 hours of play. Jessica Pegula started strongly the fist set and lead by 2:0, but Taylor Townsend overturned the result with 3 breaks, winning 6 games in a row and closed the set at 6:2. Jessica Pegula won the second set and equalized, but Taylor Townsend was quite accurate in the decisive third set and made an early break, which proved to be enough for the victory.
In the next round, Taylor Townsend will face Xiyu Wang (China), who defeated Irina-Camelia Begu (Romania) by 2-0 (6:4, 7:5).
In other matches of the WTA 1000 Rome Open, Anna Bondar (Hungary) eliminated Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) by 2-0 (7:6, 6:2), while Cori Coco Gauff (USA) defeated Yulia Putintseva (Kazakhstan) by 2-0 (6:0, 6:1) and Magda Linette (Poland) won her match versus Linda Noskova (Czech Republic) by 2-0 (7:6, 6:1).
Marie Bouzkova (Czech Republic) also advanced to the third round of the tournament after defeating Caty McNally (USA) by 2-0 (6:4, 6:3).
