The top-seeded players competing early on Sunday in Rome cruised to victories in the third round at the Italian Open.
Second-seeded Elina Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 6-4, 6-3, while fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula had an easy time against Rebeka Masarova, blanking the Swiss player 6-0, 6-0.
Two-time Rome champion and No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina routed No. 32 Hailey Baptiste 6-1, 6-2, while resurgent No. 15 Naomi Osaka of Japan took out No. 19 Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-1, 6-2.
Rybakina, who improved to 29-6 in 2026, played a dominant all-around game. She had six aces with no double faults on the Rome clay, faced only one break point while winning nearly 50% (36 of 76) of the points on Eala’s serve.
Rybakina broke the serve of the 20-year-old Eala in the third game of the match and then three times in the second set to move on to the fourth round.
Svitolina, who captured back-to-back Rome titles in 2017 and 2018, cooled the recently surging Baptiste and avenged an earlier loss to the Washington, D.C. native at the Miami Open. The Ukrainian fended off all five break points against her and converted 4 of 8 break-point chances.
Osaka was impressive, taking only 54 minutes to repel Shnaider. She served exceedingly well, winning 21 of 27 points on her first serve 31 of 41 points (75.6%) on either serve. Osaka won a resounding 55 of 80 points overall.
There were two upsets in the third round as lucky loser Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic ousted No. 17 Madison Keys 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and fast-rising Anastasia Potapova of Austria eliminated No. 20 Liudmila Samsonova of Russia 6-3, 6-2.
Bartunkova became the first lucky loser — a player eliminated during qualifying, but earning a spot due to a player withdrawal — to reach the fourth round in Rome since 2013.
“I don’t know really how I did it,” Bartunkova said. “I tried my best, my best shots. (Having fun) is my character. I loved tennis since when I was a kid, so I enjoy every moment, every hit.”
In the two late matches Sunday, No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland had a nearly perfect match in a 6-1, 6-0 win over Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto, and the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova defeated Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-4.
Swiatek had four aces, won all three break points she faced and capitalized on Cocciaretto’s second serve, winning 15 of 17 second-return points.
“I just wanted to be solid and focus on myself no matter what the score was,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes at the end of the match it’s easy for the opponent to let go and just go for it. So I wanted to just play as I planned and how I played the whole match, and at the end it worked. I really liked how I played today. My serve was good, I was opening up the court, so it was really nice.”
–Field Level Media
