Trio of Canadians advance in Rome
Andreescu, Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov all win at Italian Open
It was a good day for Canadians at the Italian Open in Rome on Tuesday.
Eighth-seeded Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime posted a 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the second round.
No. 13 seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada beat Georgia's Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the second round.
Earlier, Canada's Bianca Andreescu advanced after Briton Emma Raducanu was unable to overcome a back injury that forced her to retire from her first-round match. She was trailing 6-2, 2-1 when she called it quits.
“I do wish her a speedy recovery and hope I can keep the same energy in the next rounds,” Andreescu said.
Andreescu won 11 of 13 first-service points and pushed Raducanu to break point 11 times, though the teen battled back to save eight of them.
“It's definitely up there,” Andreescu said of whether it was her best performance of the season. “Also my match with Danielle Collins in Madrid was very good. In my opinion, `very good' for me is defined by consistency, effort, execution. So I hope I can continue to improve on that.”
Raducanu said: “Definitely disappointed with how today went. But I guess I wanted to give it a try. I never really knew how bad it was until I kind of went out there,” Raducanu told reporters.
“I'm still learning when it's right to push my body and push through it, and when it's not. I guess that's something I'm learning at these tournaments.
“After Madrid I thought that maybe taking one, two days off, it would just go away because a lot of the other small niggles I've had, they've kind of gone away after taking two days off.”
Later, No. 9 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia defeated Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-0, 7-6 (1) in her first-round match.
It marked the seventh straight match win for Jabeur, who entered Rome off her first WTA 1000 title last week in Madrid.
Jabeur won a service game to force the tiebreak and earned the first three points en route to victory. The seventh-ranked player in the world finished 20 of 26 on first-service points (76.9 per cent). She'll play Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the second round.
In other men's action, Filip Krajinovic needed just 69 minutes to post a 6-2, 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev in the second round.
Krajinovic recorded 25 winners and made just three unforced errors in the crisp victory. The Serbian saved all three of his break points.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic converted 75 per cent of his first-serve points while registering a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russian Aslan Karatsev in a second-round match.
Djokovic had 17 winners against three unforced errors.
Top seed Djokovic, who received a bye into the second round, is still seeking his first title of the year. If Djokovic does not reach the semifinals in Rome, he will surrender top spot in the rankings to Russian Daniil Medvedev for a second time this year.
The five-time event champion from Serbia was pleased with his match against Karatsev.
“You always hope you can play some exciting and attractive points, and that you can come out as the winner of those points and celebrate with the crowd, obviously,” Djokovic said. “That's what the crowd is looking for. Energy, excitement, fight and they want to see some good tennis.
“We had some nice points today. It's always good to play in the Colosseum of tennis, and this stadium certainly is.”
In my opinion, `very good' for me is defined by consistency, effort, execution.
PORTUGUESE CHAIR UMPIRE BANNED FOR LIFE
Portuguese chair umpire Daniel Zeferino has been banned from tennis for life after being found guilty of match fixing and helping bettors, the International Tennis Integrity Agency said on Tuesday.
The London-based agency said Zeferino had been “manipulating” scores inputted into his electronic scoring device at an ITF M15 event in 2020, facilitating “guaranteed wins” by bettors on those points.
The ITIA added that Zeferino did not contest the charges and admitted his conduct in an interview.