Italian Open: Sasnovich moves to second round

Belarus’ world number 50 Aliaksandra Sasnovich went off to a good start at the Italian Open seeing off Russia’s world number 28 Veronika Kudermetova, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, in her opening match, BelTA has learned.

The match lasted for two hours and 11 minutes. Aliaksandra Sasnovich will next play either Russia’s world number 20 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Canada’s world number 18 Leylah Fernandez.

Belarus’ world number 16 Victoria Azarenka cruised past world number 56 Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-0, in the opener. The Belarusian will next face either Colombia’s world number 58 Osorio Serrano or world number 79 Lucia Bronzetti of Italy.

World number 8 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will kick off her Italian Open campaign against China’s world number 42 Zhang Shuai in the second round.

In the women’s doubles event Belarus’ Lidziya Marozava and Natela Dzalamidze of Russia lost to the U.S.-China duo Kaitlyn Christian and Han Xinyun, 6-7 (9-11), 3-6.

In the men’s singles round of Last 64 Belarus’ world number 50 Ilya Ivashka lost to Spain’s world number 29 Alejandro Davidovich, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6.

The tournament in the Italian capital will complete on 15 May.