Aryna Sabalenka Advances to Third Round of 2026 Italian Open

JAKARTA - World number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka bounced back after her surprise defeat to Hailey Baptiste at the Madrid Open last week to reach the third round at the 2026 Italian Open.

The Belarusian played his first match in Rome by recording a landslide victory 6-2 and 6-3 over Barbora Krejcikova in one hour and 24 minutes on Thursday, May 7, 2026, local time.

"I'm very happy to qualify. He's a great player. We've had a lot of tough matches before," Sabalenka said, quoted from the WTA official website.

This result makes Sabalenka extend his dominance over the 30-year-old Czech who has a collection of two Grand Slam titles. This is his seventh victory out of a total of eight clashes in the competitive arena.

The duel was also their first meeting on the field after the Australian Open quarterfinal in 2024. At that time, Sabalenka won with the exact same score as their most recent meeting in Italy.

"He's a real fighter and I'm happy to see him back. I'm also happy with my level of play to get this difficult victory," said Sabalenka.

Krejcikova - who is playing in Rome for the first time since 2023 - managed to break Sabalenka's serve in the first game of this match. However, it was the only moment Sabalenka was behind in this meeting.

The 28-year-old quickly found his game rhythm to counter with a break of Krejcikova's serve and tie the score. Krejcikova then held her serve for 2-2, but Sabalenka won the next four games to grab the first set in 37 minutes.

The second set was similar. Sabalenka secured a break to lead the score 3-1 with an overhead winner and did not let up after that. He also managed to close the set with a save without losing a point.

In the third round, Sabalenka will face Sorana Cirstea. The Romanian player, who is ranked 26th, qualified for the third round after stopping German player Tatjana Maria.