The biggest names on the WTA side enter the draw at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday, with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, defending champion Jasmine Paolini and last year’s finalist Coco Gauff all making second-round debuts on Campo Centrale. Mirra Andreeva, beaten in the Madrid final last weekend, headlines the schedule on the BNP Paribas Arena.
Sabalenka has been handed an unforgiving opener against two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova in the closing match of the day, scheduled no earlier than 8:30 p.m. local time. The Belarusian arrives in Rome looking to bounce back after a startling quarter-final loss in Madrid to American Hailey Baptiste, in which she squandered six match points before going down 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6).
Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 6-1 and has won their last three meetings in straight sets, but Krejcikova, the 2022 Roland Garros champion, returns to action with renewed conviction after beating Elsa Jacquemot 6-2, 6-4 in her first match since Dubai in mid-February.
The Czech, currently ranked No. 53 following an extended layoff with a thigh injury, has had time to acclimatise to the Foro Italico clay. “I’ve played Aryna several times. It’s always difficult,” Krejcikova told Tennis Up To Date after her opening win. “I’ve been watching her matches over the last two months. I’m really looking forward to seeing how I am and I hope to be a tough opponent for her.”
Earlier in the day, Paolini opens her title defence at 1:00 p.m. against French qualifier Léolia Jeanjean, the last home flag-bearer left in the women’s draw. The Italian carries a 10-9 record into the tournament after a stuttering season that has seen her drop to world No. 8, with a third-round defeat to Baptiste in Madrid extending the slide.
Jeanjean, ranked No. 127, has navigated qualifying and a first-round upset of Beatriz Haddad Maia, 7-6(6), 6-4, to reach this stage and is unbeaten on tour against top-line opposition this week. The pair met once before, at the United Cup in January, where Paolini won 6-2, 6-3.
Gauff follows Paolini onto Campo Centrale at approximately 3:30 p.m. to face Czech teenager Tereza Valentova, ranked No. 48, in a rematch of their Roland Garros second-round meeting last year. The 19-year-old reached Rome only late on Tuesday after sitting an academic exam in Prague the previous day, and produced a confident 6-3, 6-2 win over Yulia Putintseva on debut.
“It’s going to be also revenge,” Valentova said in pre-match comments published by the WTA. “It’s a different level to play revenge against a Grand Slam champion. For me I have nothing to lose.” Gauff, the third seed and reigning French Open champion, has a 19-8 record this season but lost early in Madrid to Linda Noskova and will be wary of an opponent who reached a WTA 125 final at Saint-Malo only days ago.
BNP Paribas Arena. Andreeva, who lost the Madrid final to Marta Kostyuk on Sunday, opens against Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic in the first match of the day. The Russian carries a tour-leading 12-2 clay record into Rome after winning the title in Linz and reaching the semi-finals in Stuttgart, an outstanding three-week run on the surface.
Ruzic, 11-13 on the year, advanced past Kamilla Rakhimova in three sets in the first round. Thursday’s results will shape the top half of the draw with Roland Garros now less than three weeks away
