Sunday was full of tennis action in Foro Italico, as the weather did not interrupt to play the matches of Internazionali BNL D'Italia 3rd round, in contrast to the day before. 10 matches were scheduled for today, but one of those did not happen, because Victoria Azarenka pulled out of the tournament ahead of her match against Madison Keys due to the leg injury.
The day started with a marathon match between Daria Kasatkina and Julia Grabher. The Austrian challenged the tournament's 8th seed despite being rated as an underdog in the pre-match odds. The match was tight and intense battle from the start. Kasatkina won the opening set 7-5 despite being a break down after 3 games and moved into the comfortable 3-0 lead in second set, setting herself up in a position to close this match in relatively easy two sets. It has not happened though, as Grabher surprisingly bounced back by winning 5 games in a row and took the second set with a score 6-4. Both players shared the breaks in two opening games of the decider and produced breakpoints on both sides later on, but the settlement came up in the tiebreak, where the pre-match favorite prevailed 7-2, as Kasatkina won the last 5 points of the match.
No much time to rest for the Russian before the interesting round of 16 match-up tomorrow, as Kasatkina faces Jelena Ostapenko, who performed a stunning win over Barbora Krejcikova. The clash between former Roland Garros champions started slowly for Ostapenko, as the Czech dominated the opening games, moving up into 5-1 lead. Krejcikova was playing with a big confidence and was clinical with converting just 2 breakpoints to run away with the score. It was not the end as it panned out later on, because Ostapenko fought back to win a series of points since then and forced the tiebreak, where she won 7-2. This trend continued in second set, as the Latvian was on fire, hitting multiple winners and gave away just 5 single points for Krejcikova, who did not manage to take away any game there. Ostapenko has needed just 77 minutes to advance further with a score 7-6(2) 6-0 despite being really far down on the scoreline against the player, who was rated much higher before the match, as Krejcikova was a favorite there with an odd 1.52.
Iga Swiatek has made her job done against, as the world's ranking leader moved on with a victory over Lesia Tsurenko. The Pole has expectedly did not give too much chance for her unseeded rival. Despite being broken in the opening game, Swiatek has won all the games since the score 0-2 in the opening set to win it 6-2 6-0 eventually. Donna Vekic will be Swiatek's opponent on Monday. The Croatian has eliminated Liudmila Samsonova in hard fought three-setter. Vekic was two points away from the lose, as she lost the opening set 2-6 and the second set got settled in tie-break, where Vekic earned the decisive minibreak within a score 5-5. The decider was dominated by the world's number 24, who broke her opponent twice and sealed the victory after difficult last service game, where Vekic has needed 5 matchpoints to close the match. It will be a revenge for the last year's WTA 500 San Diego Open's final, where Swiatek took the title by winning a three-setter over Vekic.
The match between Elena Rybakina and Anna Kalinskaya was also the revenge time for the latest meeting between both, as the Russian made an upset on the Kazakh in Madrid two weeks ago. This time it was Rybakina who came through, but it's hard to call it a successful revenge, because Kalinskaya pulled out from the match after just 7 games due to an injury. The world's number 57 has already called the medical timeout after the opening game and even despite being leveled on serve, Kalinskaya decided to withdraw after just 35 minutes of play. Rybakina will meet Marketa Vondrousova tomorrow. The Czech proves to be one of the most unranked players right now, as she defeated Maria Sakkari in straight sets 7-5 6-3. Vondrousova builds up her ranking after the break taken last year, but it's sure that she can climb up much higher than current 70th place, playing with a current performance further on. The Czech has won 13 out of her 16 previous matches, and advanced into the round of 16 in 4th consecutive WTA 1000 tournament.
Karolina Muchova is another Czech player who climbs up in the rankings this year and does it really well, as the recent Indian Wells quarterfinalist has eliminated the last standed home favorite in the draw, winning 7-6(4) 6-2 over Camila Giorgi. Muchova sets up the intriguing match up against Paula Badosa, as the Spaniard advanced into the round of 16 after routine win over Marta Kostyuk, 6-4 6-2.
Marie Bouzkova, performed her best season's win by making an upset on Cori Gauff. The Czech fought back from being a set down against the current world's number 5 and advanced through with an impressive win 4-6 6-2 6-2. Bouzkova, who was one of the most improved players of the year 2022, struggles this season as she did not manage to win more than 2 matches in a single tournament so far, but the victory over Gauff despite being rated as an underdog with a pre-match odd 3.89 can be some kind of breakthrough for the 27th seed, who faces Veronika Kudermetova on Monday.
