Canada’s Bianca Andreescu defeated Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz 6-3, 7-6 (4) to advance to the round of 16 at the Italian Tennis Open on Wednesday.
It was the first career game between the two players, and the Ontarian ended it after an hour and 38 minutes on Roman clay.
The 2019 US Open champion was more efficient than Parrizas Diaz on serve, winning the point with her first serve 67.4% and 51.9% with her second serve.
By comparison, the Spaniard, who advanced to the main draw of the tournament thanks to a last-minute withdrawal, posted success rates of only 57.9% in first serve, and 44.4% in second.
Andreescu was also broken just three times in 12 chances — most of Parrizas Diaz’s chances came in the second set — while she converted all four of her opportunities against the No. 51 player in the world.
Andreescu, 90th racket in the world, thus set the table for a duel in the round of 16 against Croatian Petra Martic, who surprised the fifth seed, the Estonian Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-3.
On the other hand, Quebecer Leylah Annie Fernandez was not as lucky as her compatriot Andreescu.
The 19-year-old Lavalloise worked hard before dropping the flag 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (2) to Russian Daria Kasatkina after a marathon of two hours and 45 minutes of play under a blazing sun.
Kasatkina, the 23rd racket in the world, will cross swords in the next round with the winner of the duel between the player from Belarus Aliaksandra Sasnovich and the second seed, the Spaniard Paula Badosa.
For their part, Gabriela Dabrowski of Ontario and her Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos reached the quarter-finals of the doubles by ousting the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova and the Kazakh Anna Danilina 7-5, 3-6 and 10-7.