WTA Rome: Swiatek begins her title defense with Naomi Osaka winning seven in a row

On May 8, local time, the second round of the women's singles competition WTA1000 Rome, the defending champion Swiatek swept the local wild card Cocciaretto 6-1/6-0 to start the defense of the title, and the third round will face the No. 29 seed Collins, who defeated qualifier Ruse 6-3/6-3. This will be the first meeting between the two sides since last year's Paris Olympics.

Swiatek infographic

No.6 seed Paulini defeated New Zealand's Chinese Sun Lulu 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the round of 32 and face 27th seed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who received Kvitova's retirement gift before the match.

Japan's and four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka came back from behind to beat lucky loser Grubic 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 to make it seven wins in a row on clay. Naomi Osaka's original opponent was Spain's Bardosa, but the latter withdrew due to a back injury. Naomi Osaka will face Czech Republic's Bouzkova in the third round, who defeated 18th seed Maia 6-0, 6-3.

No.17 seed Ostapenko narrowly missed Slamkova 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will face lucky loser Sigmund in the third round. Third seed Pegula defeated compatriot Kruger 6-4, 6-2 to win all five of his fights and face 25th seed Mertens in the third round. No.5 seed Keys overcame a 2-5 deficit in the first set to beat Gracheva 7-6(4)/6-1 to face another American player in the third round.

Other results:

[L]Sigmund 6-2 6-2 Bronzetti

[13] Schneider 6-0 6-0 Dolehide

Christian 7-6(2), 7-5 [23]Putintseva

[25] Mertens 3-6 6-2 6-3 Lamens

Stearns 6-2 6-3 [28]Karinskaya

[16] Svitolina 6-4 7-6(2) Bosas Manero

[Q] Baptiste 6-3 2-6 6-4 [19] Samsonova

(Text, Editor/Faye Wong, Photo/Visual China)