Japanese tennis ace and world No. 2 Naomi Osaka may conflict with Serena Williams in a mouth-watering quarter-final match of the Italian Open (May 8-16), the draw for which was introduced on Saturday. In one other fascinating quarter-final match-up, No. 1 seed from Australia, Ashleigh Barty may face Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the Stuttgart and Madrid Open finals. Serena, a four-time champion in Rome in 2002, 2013, 2014 and 2016, shall be competing for the primary time since her Australian Open semi-final loss to Osaka.
The American begins her marketing campaign in opposition to both Roland Garros semi-finalist Nadia Podoroska or a qualifier, earlier than a projected third-round assembly with No. 10 seed Belinda Bencic.
Osaka, whose greatest displaying on the match was a quarter-final run in 2019, faces a troublesome take a look at as she is going to take on both Daria Kasatkina — a two-time titlist on the Phillip Island Trophy and St. Petersburg this 12 months — or the surging Australian Open quarter-finalist Jessica Pegula.
This week in Madrid, Barty and Sabalenka grew to become the primary gamers to fulfill in a number of claycourt finals forward of Roland Garros since 2009, when Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova contested each the Stuttgart and Rome finals. The two type gamers shall be unable to set a 3rd title match in Rome, although, as they’re projected to conflict in the final eight.
Before that, Barty faces a attainable third-round match in opposition to No.14 seed Elise Mertens. Sabalenka, in the meantime, has stumbled upon one of many hardest sections of the draw. The Belarusian may open in opposition to the gritty Sara Sorribes Tormo in a rematch of their memorable Ostrava tilt final autumn.
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