Sharapova made to toil
Defending champ Svitolina sails into third round
Rome, May 16: Defending champion Elina Svitolina eased into the third round of the WTA Italian Open as three-time winner Maria Sharapova needed a marathon three sets to get past Australian Ashleigh Barty.
Svitolina, the fourth seed, received a first round bye and dropped just three games in a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over 35th-ranked Petra Martic last night.
The 23-year-old Ukrainian won the biggest clay court title of her career last year at the Foro Italico. And she continued where she left off despite the rainy conditions, needing just over an hour to peg back her Croatian rival.
By contrast, Sharapova needed two and a half hours to master 18thranked Barty 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in their first round match.
Barty pushed the fivetime Grand Slam winner to a third set as she did against Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki last week in Madrid.
The game swung the Russian’s direction in the final set when Sharapova held serve in a crucial 1-1 game from 0-40 down after having failed to convert three break points in the previous game.
Barty, ranked 18, saved two match points in the final game against the 2011, 2012 and 2015 winner but two unforced errors in a row handed Sharapova a second round berth.
Sharapova next meets Dominika Cibulkova in the second round. The pair have not played each other since the Slovak won in the fourth round of the 2014 Australian Open on her way to the final.
Fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia advanced to the third round past China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2 7-5.
In the men’s event, Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov battled past Czech veteran Tomas Berdych to advance. The scoreline displayed 1-6, 63, 7-6 (7/5).