Wozniacki, Radwanska, Bartoli out of the Rome Open

By Lisa-Marie Burrows

Internazionali BNL D’Italia, Rome – It was all about the women’s matches out on the red courts of Rome today. There were some exciting line-ups, fantastic rallies and staggering losses. Many of the matches were scheduled around the same time, so with a lot of running, camera ready and comfy shoes here are some of the exciting matches I was able to catch today.

Agnieszka Radwanska versus Petra Cetkovska:
Cetkovska defeated Radwanska 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

This was the first featured match up in the Super Tennis Stadium and indeed the match was super. World No.28 Petra Cetkovska recorded yet another victory against world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska to improve her head-to-head 4-0. Radawanska was certainly not playing in the same form that I witnessed last week in Madrid where she reached the semi-finals. Cetkovska made her debut here this year, as she has never played in this tournament before and after today’s performance, she looked quite at home and withstood the fight back from the Pole.

Flavia Pennetta versus Sloane Stephens:
Pennetta defeated Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3.

The home crowd favourite Flavia Pennetta opened up play in the Pietrangeli stadium surrounded by huge Roman statues in front of a packed audience, where she has made her appearance for the tenth time at the tournament. The world No.21 delighted her supporters with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over the qualifier Sloane Stephens. The two players had played against each other on one other occasion which Pennetta won back in 2010. The young 19 year old had no answers today against the power of Pennetta and with the impartial crowd heavily cheering on their girl, Pennetta comfortably progressed into the next round.

Samantha Stosur versus Sara Errani:
Stosur defeated Errani 6-3, 7-5

Samantha Stosur and Sara Errani have met on four previous occasions, all in favour of Stosur, but today the 25 year old Italian stood tall against the world No.5 and pushed her to the brink during the second set. In their last meeting in Dubai Stosur lost only one game against her but today, with the crowd becoming heavily involved Stosur went down a break and was almost staring at going into a third set. Eventually the aggressive play of Stosur withstood and after breaking back to level up the second set, she broke again in the eleventh game before serving it out.

Caroline Wozniacki versus Anabel Medina Garrigues:
Medina Garrigues defeated 6-4, 4-0 (retired).

Former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki stepped out onto the small Court 2 against Spaniard Medina Garrigues not feeling well from the onset. She went down a break early in the first set and the trainer was called onto court. Wozniacki continued battling through most of the rallies in the first set and managed to come back from 1-4 down before eventually losing 6-4. Once again at the start of the second set, Wozniacki was broken on two further occasions and due to upper respiratory problems, she was forced to retire.

In other news, 7th seed Marion Bartoli was another seed knocked out in straight sets 3-6, 1-6 against world No.29 Julia Goerges and Sorana Cirstea defeated Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden by exactly the same scoreline 6-3, 6-1.

Lisa-Marie Burrows covered the Mutua Madrid Open last week and is currently in Rome covering the all of the action from the Masters. Catch her as a regular contributor for TennisBloggers.com and on Twitter: @TennisNewsViews.