WTA Rome: Zheng Qinwen defeated Danilovic in straight sets to win his first clay victory in 2025

On the evening of May 9, Beijing time, the 2025 WTA Rome Station launched the second round of the women's singles in the upper half of the region, and Chinese player Zheng Qinwen defeated Serbian player Danilovic, ranked No. 33 in the world, in straight sets 6-1/6-4 to advance to the top 32 of women's singles, winning the first victory on clay after winning gold at the Paris Olympics last year. Zheng's third-round opponent is No.26 seed Freich, who defeated former world No.1 Azarenka 7-5, 6-4.

Zheng and Danilovic have only met once before in the 2024 United Cup, when Zheng also won in two sets. In the second meeting between the two sides today, Zheng Qinwen quickly entered the state at the beginning, taking a 5-0 lead, including five consecutive points in the fourth game at 0-40 to break serve. Danilovic improved his form after holding serve for the first time in the sixth game, and Zheng Qinwen withstood his opponent's counterattack in the seventh game, saving four break points and winning the set with an ace to take the next set 6-1.

Zheng Qinwen (Photo: Li Jianyi)

In the second set, both sides failed to hold serve in the first five games, and Zheng Qinwen took the lead in the sixth game to hold serve and lead 4-2. After that, both sides held serve and the score alternately rose, and it came to Zheng Qinwen's service game, where she scored four points in a row and cashed in match point with an ace to seal the win in the next set 6-4.

Sabalenka (Photo: Visual China)

Madrid champion and world No.1 Sabalenka swept past Potapova 6-2, 6-2 to make it seven wins in singles and 13 in 1000, and her third-round opponent will be 31st seed Kenin, who gave Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-0. 32nd seed Rinette came back from behind to beat Greece's Sakkari, who had come out of qualifying, 1-6, 6-4, 6-1. Second seeds Zhang Shuai/Siniakova came back from the next set to defeat Merichal/Samsonova 6-2, 0-6, 4-10 in the Women's Doubles first round.

Third seed Alcaraz got off to a flying start with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Lajovic. 13th seed France's Fes beat Gricosp 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the third round where he will face the winner between 18th seed Tsitsipas and Miller. 14th seed Dimitrov suffered a 5-7, 3-6 upset to homegrown wildcard Passaro, who will face 23rd seed Khachanov in the third round, who defeated qualifier Bruchaga 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

(Text, Editor/Faye Wong)