Rome Italy) – For only the second time in her career, Japanese Naomi Osaka achieved two consecutive victories at the WTA 1000 in Rome. This Wednesday, the former world number 1 had to overcome the rain and the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, 19th seed in the competition, to reach the third round at Foro Italico. After stopping for just over an hour, she returned to the court and scored a 6/3 and 6/2 victory in 1h11 of the match.
In just her fifth appearance on Roman clay, Osaka has two eliminations in debuts (2017 and 2021) and another in the second round (2018). In 2019, they had their best campaign in the tournament by reaching the quarterfinals, after two victories in the previous stages. Trying to win three consecutive games in an unprecedented way in the Italian capital, the Japanese will face a duel against Daria Kasatkina.
Currently 11th in the ranking and 10th seed in the competition, the Russian made her debut in this edition against the German Tatjana Maria and came out on top in straight sets, scoring 7/5 and 6/1 after 1h35 of confrontation. Osaka and Kasatkina only faced each other once on the circuit and the Japanese prevailed by 2 sets to 0 in the decision of the WTA 1000 in Indian Wells in 2018, on hard court.
Sabalenka meets her first challenge
Runner-up in Madrid last Sunday and semi-finalist in Rome two years ago, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka discovered her first opponent in the competition this Thursday. It will be the North American Katie Volynets, who came from quali and beat the Chinese Yafan Wang by 7/6 (8-6) and 6/1. Formerly top 80 and now only 109th in the rankings, Volynets has never faced the current number 2 in the world in her career. At 22 years old, she only has two titles as a professional, both on clay in ITF W100 level tournaments, in 2021 and 2022.
