Konta cruises to straightsets victory on Rome clay

Johanna Konta began her Internazionali BNL d’Italia campaign yesterday with a straightforward 6-3 6-0 victory over Yulia Putintseva to reach the third round in Rome.

The world No 6, who received a bye in the first round, broke the 2016 French Open quarterfinalist on five occasions to give herself some much-needed confidence on the Italian clay with the second grand slam of the year at Roland Garros starting next week.

The 25-year-old reached the third round in this event last year but has struggled on the clay surface this season, with a second-round exit at the Stuttgart Open last month coupled with a first-round defeat at the Madrid Open 10 days ago.

The Briton will take on the winner of Lesia Tsurenko and Venus Williams, who play today, for a place in the last eight.

Meanwhile the former world No 1 Maria Sharapova saw her Rome campaign cut short by a leg injury as she retired from her second-round match against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

The Russian, who has returned to competitive tennis following her 15-month doping suspension, was looking to continue her climb up the rankings in an attempt to qualify for the main Wimbledon draw by reaching the semi-finals.

However, not long after learning she was not to be granted a wild card for the French Open, where she twice won the tournament, Sharapova had to concede her match against the 16th seed when 2-1 up in the deciding set following a medical time out.

Lucic-Baroni will go on to face either top seed Angelique Kerber, the current world No 1, or Anett Kontaveit in the third round. Seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-1 7-6 (7/3).