Author: Barkha Roy
Friday was a mixed day for the Brazilians, with the Brazilian-German men’s pair of Marcelo Melo and Alexander Zverev losing 6-3, 3-6 and 6-10 to the German pair of Kevin Kraweitz and Tim Putz. In the women’s doubles, the Canadian-Brazilian pair of Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani, the fifth seed, also lost to the Czech-American duo of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Marie Bouzkova, 6-2, 2-6 and 8-10.
However, the women’s doubles team that won the Madrid Masters, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Victoria Azarenka, beat the Russian pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.
Novak Djokovic, the men’s number one, managed to recover from a difficult first set in which he made 21 unforced errors to win the match 7-6(5), 6-2 against Tomas Martin Etcheverry during the second round of the Rome Masters on Friday. At the same time, Iga Swiatek, the women’s world number one, began the defense of her title at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with an impressive victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round on Friday, winning 6-0, 6-0.
After defeating Tomas Martin Etcheverry, 35-year-old Novak Djokovic is now scheduled to play Grigor Dimitrov in the third round of the Rome Masters. Dimitrov won 35 of the 40 points on his first serve and won 62% of the rallies with more than four strokes to advance, beating Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-6(3) after holding a 3-1 lead in the second set.
Meanwhile, Casper Ruud, the fourth seed, also advanced to the third round after beating Arthur Rinderknech 6-4, 6-0. He will face Alexander Bublik, who secured a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 victory over 28th seed Ben Shelton. In another match, Holger Rune won in straight sets against Arthur Fils, who is the youngest player in the draw at 18 years old. Rune will face wild card Fabio Fognini in the third round, who pulled off an impressive 6-3, 7-6(6) comeback against 30th seed Miomir Kecmanovic.
Alexandre Muller fell to world number 13 Cameron Norrie, who won in straight sets in just 74 minutes. Norrie will now face Marton Fucsovics in the next round, who secured a 6-3, 6-4 win over 17th seed Alex de Minaur. In another match, fan favorite Jannik Sinner overcame Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the third round. He will now face lucky loser Alexander Shevchenko, who beat Sebastian Baez 6-3, 6-4.
Meanwhile, in the women’s singles draw, Swiatek made history by becoming the second player, after Chris Evert, to have multiple 6-0, 6-0 wins in Rome. She achieved this feat after defeating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round, following her victory over Karolina Pliskova by the same score in the 2021 final. Swiatek also extended her winning streak in Rome to 12 consecutive matches, joining Chris Evert, Conchita Martinez, Gabriela Sabatini, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams as the sixth woman in the Open Era to win 12 or more consecutive matches in the Eternal City.
In another second round match, Paula Badosa beat Ons Jaber 6-1, 6-4. Her next opponent will be No. 32 seed Marta Kostyuk, who also won her match by beating Claire Liu 6-0, 6-4.