Rome: Men’s and women’s top seeds in the Italian Open tennis tournament – Rafa Nadal and Simona Halep – advanced to the quarterfinals here, Thursday albeit in contrasting fashions.
Nadal had to work a little against Canadian Denis Shapovalov before winning 6-4, 6-1. After a tight first in which Nadal came back from a break down to win, the Spaniard was unstoppable in the second to emerge a comfortable winner.
Romanian Halep on the other hand had to break little sweat as her opponent Madison Keys of the US did not take court due to a rib injury.
“I am really sorry I have to withdraw from this year’s event,” Keys said in a statement. “I felt my rib in my match yesterday (Wednesday) and after trying to warm up Thursday morning it was still painful.”
Meanwhile for the second week in a row, Estonian tennis player Anett Kontaveit defeated the United States’ Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(7-3) to seal her last eight berth in 69 minutes.
In another match, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina and currently World No.4, made a strong comeback against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and advanced to the quarterfinals. The defending champion took one hour and 36 minutes to overcome a tough loss in the first set and defeat Kasatkina, World No.13, 0-6, 6-3, 6-2.
She will next meet former World No.1 Angelique Kerber who beat Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-1, 6-1. Defending French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko also had to fight hard before overcoming Britain’s Johanna Konta 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the men’s segment, fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro while trailing 2-6, 5-4 against Belgium’s David Goffin withdrew with a groin strain. There was no such problem for fourth-seeded Croat Marin Cilic who thumped out Benoit Paire of France three and four.