WTA: Sharapova in Rome with difficulty, defending champion Svitolina sovereign more

Defending champion Elina Svitolina is in the third round of the WTA Premier Tournament in Rome. Also victorious on Tuesday was Maria Sharapova.

The rain in Rome also mixed up the ladies’ program, but a three-time winner in Foro Italico passed her task successfully: Maria Sharapova, who did not compete in Rome this year, struggled for more than two and a half hours with Ashleigh Barty, but ended up winning 7:5, 3:6 and 6:2.

Sharapova now has an interesting path ahead of her: against Dominika Cibulkova she must by no means be considered an outsider, after that, according to Setzung, last year’s French Open winner would wait: Yelena Ostapenko.

Kiki Bertens, on the other hand, was eliminated: On Saturday, the Dutchman had still demanded everything from Petra Kvitova in the Madrid final, but now Bertens lost to the Greek Maria Sakkari in the opening match. After their triumph in Caja Magical, Kvitova, on the other hand, did not start in Rome at all.

After slight problems in the second set, Angelique Kerber did no harm to Zarina Diyas. After Laura Siegemund’s defeat of Elena Vesnina, the last remaining German player in the main draw will now face Irina Camelia Begu.

Defending champion Elina Svitolina is already in round three: The Ukrainian, who has not gone to Wumsch in the last weeks, left Petra Martic from Croatia no chance at 6:1 and 6:2 in just over an hour.

Venus Williams has once again tried something different: for the first time since 2008 (at the side of Caroline Wozniacki at that time) the great old lady of tennis has tried herself with another partner: And defeated with Madison Keys Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the match tiebreak.

Here the single tableau of the ladies in Rome