Italian Open 2020: Konta, Muguruza, Azarenka cruise through Round of 16 as Kenin, Gauff crash out


Italian Open 2020: Konta, Muguruza, Azarenka cruise through Round of 16 as Kenin, Gauff crash out

hercog kuznetsova konta azarenka

Italian Open 2020 paces ahead as Johanna Konta beats Irina-Camelia Begu, Muguruza outshine Gauff, Kuznetsova defeats Kontaveit, Azarenka thrills past Kenin and Hercog crashes Bertens in the round of 32.

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Konta crashes Begu

Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta cruised past Irina-Camelia Begu with a confident 6-4, 6-0 victory. The French Open 2019 finalist kicked off on a strong note striking 10 winners and 3 unforced errors in a one-sided set with her opponent only managing to get 12 points. The Briton number one maintained her highs as she proceeded to 4-1 in the second set. Thereafter, as the Romanian earned a break back, Konta sealed the keeping all her discipline in place.

“I think I’m building on each match as I’m playing,” Konta told the media, after the victory.

“It is a very different, very strange, very unorthodox mini-season for us, so it is going to be a lot of flexibility, we’re going to have to stay very adaptable. But I don’t think there’s any reason why I can’t keep building on my level and play good tennis.”

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She next faces Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.

Muguruza defeats Gauff

Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza battles off Coco Gauff with an astounding third set upturn, edging a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3 victory. In the tight faceoff, the opener with quite aggressive, with an even match. The set saw a fiery turnaround by Muguruza as she won it. The American teenager aced the second set and moved ahead in the third with a 2-0 lead. The deal was all hers. But, Muguruza got her break back and aced the last seven games subsequently. And finally, with Gauff missing a forehand into the net, the ninth seed took over.

“It was a tough match. I’m looking forward to tough matches,” Muguruza said post match.

The first set was tight. It could have gone both ways, but I’m happy it went my way after a good fight. In the second set I didn’t take the opportunities I had, and she was there the whole time. The third set was a battle again, but I managed to be solid, play my game and take the opportunities I didn’t take in the second set,” she added.

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Praising her opponent she later said, “She’s a great competitor. She can play very well—she’s proven it, she’s beaten many good players.”

Kuznetsova squashes Kontaveit

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Svetlana Kuznetsova overcomes in-form Anett Kontaveit in a two hour 48 minutes battle aceing 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Though the Estonian had aced the opening set, she gave in as her opponent claimed the second and dashed to seal the deal in the third.

“Anett has more matches under her belt, so she was a little bit more confident in the start,” Kuznetsova said after her triumph.

“I was just trying to hang in there all match and do my best. I started to play better and better as the match went on,” she added.

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Awaiting her next opponent, Elina Svitolina, she said, “I think I’m done with expectations in my career. I just want to play. Expectations do nothing and bother you.” 

Azarenka sails past Kenin

Victoria Azarenka

Victoria Azarenka trounces Kenin with a first ever thriller 6-0,6-0 win. She stormed the 2020 Australian Open winner in just 61  minutes, hitting 10 winners to just four unforced errors and never facing a break point. Kenin, on the other hand made twice the unforced errors to her winners with 22 to 11, through the match. Further, the Belarusian aced twice as many points as her seed five opponent with 57 to 29.

“I think consistency was the key to the scoreline,” said the 31-year old post her first Top 5 victory since April 2019 against Karolina Pliskova in Stuttgart.

“I feel that I played really smart tennis today—I was able to use a lot of the court, and I was able to use a lot of different pace. So I’m really happy about that. But the key to the scoreline was to maintain the level I started with,” she added.

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Azarenka awaits a faceoff against Russian qualifier Daria Kasatkina in the third round.

Hercog cruises past Bertens

Polona Hercog

Polona Hercog beats  Kiki Bertens  6-4, 6-4, aceing her second career win over a Top 10 player. She overcame seed five striking 19 to 11 winners and converting five of her ten breakpoints while she broke a-22 match losing streak against her opponent.

“It’s been a while since I’ve played Kiki, since the end of last year, I think she’s a good player and a nice person as well,” Hercog told the media, after her win. “I really enjoyed it out there, I did the tactics and everything right,” the Slovene continued. “I was just trying to stick to my plan, and it really worked well today.” she added.

Hercog next faces seed twelve Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the round of 16.

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Other results:

  • Yulia Putintseva beats Petra Martić 6-3, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4
  • Marketa Vonrousova beats Arantxa Rus 6-3, 6-3
  • Elina Svitolina beats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 7-6 (7-4)
  • Daria Kasatkina beats Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 6-3

Also Read: Italian Open 2020: Elina Svitolina vs Svetlana Kuznetsova Preview, Head to Head, Prediction