Polish fans can be proud! Double victory of Polish women with big names
Thus, in the third round of the tournament in the capital of Italy, it will be possible to follow the matches of as many as three Polish singles players. In addition to the defending champion Iga Świątek, who dealt with Elisabetta Cocciaretto in a lightning-fast manner in Thursday's match - 6:1, 6:0 in 54 minutes - Magda Linette and Magdalena Fręch will appear in the further part of the competition.
WTA 1000 Rome: Linette's great comeback. Fręch beats the former ranking leader!The first of the two aforementioned Polish players to appear on the court on Friday was the more experienced one. Magda Linette (number 32 in the tournament bracket) faced Maria Sakkari. Interestingly, the tournament bracket meant that we had a repeat of the match from the recent WTA 1000 in Madrid. At that time, the Greek player was on top, although she had to sweat a lot to beat the Poznań player in the capital of Spain. Linette, however, took advantage of the opportunity for revenge. She did it in great style, emerging unscathed from a 1:6 and 3:4 deficit in the second set.
What's more, the Pole lost her serve in the seventh game, so Sakkari had a break advantage and an open path to closing the competition in two sets. However, Linette managed to respond quickly, adding a return break (4:4), and ultimately, winning the set 6:4. Although the last two games were full of emotions, Sakkari also had a chance to add another effective break point. The Greek, who was the third player in the WTA ranking in 2022, could not hold back, and Linette showed her good side, following up the blow and winning the last set of the match very confidently 6:1 - in 36 minutes. However, the whole meeting was a strong dose of tennis, because it lasted two hours and nine minutes.
Fręch also faced a big challenge. The Łódź player faced Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian is, after all, a former world leader, a Grand Slam champion from the Australian Open (2012, 2013), a semi-finalist at Roland Garros (2013), Wimbledon (2011, 2012) and a finalist at the US Open (2012, 2013, 2020). However, as one can rightly say, those successes are a thing of the past that go back more than a decade, looking at the current moment of Azarenka's career. However, the Belarusian put up a fight against Fręch.
The player from Łódź is seeded 26th in the tournament in Rome. The Pole and the Belarusian spent a total of just over two hours on the court (2:07), very similarly to the previously mentioned Linette. The match ended in two sets, but evenly matched, because in the first it was 7:5 and in the second 6:4. The second set was particularly dramatic. The players broke their opponents' service games seven times in total. Fręch won the game first on her serve, at 2:2 - going to 3:2. What's more, it was already 5:2 for the player from Łódź, but Azarenka managed to pull and jump to 5:4, breaking the Pole. A moment later, however, she did not gather enough concentration to equalize and lost her serve, ending her participation in the tournament in Rome.
It is already known that Fręch will play Qinwen Zheng in the third round. The Olympic champion from the Olympic Games in Paris (2024), where the Chinese player defeated Świątek in the semi-final, is a tournament eight. However, it is not certain that Fręch will not cause a surprise. The Chinese player is far from her best form in the 2025 season.
Linette will most likely play Coco Gauff, although the American has yet to face a lower-ranked opponent. Let's add that Gauff is a finalist in the recent tournament in Madrid - also dealing with Świątek in the semi-finals. On Saturday (May 10), Iga will face Danielle Collins, an eccentric American. On the same day, it is also worth taking a look - from the perspective of Polish tennis - at the men's tournament in Rome. Hubert Hurkacz will appear in the ATP 1000 competition. The Wrocław player, who has had a really bad few months in terms of results - will play the lower-ranked Spaniard Pedro Martinez. Last year, "Hubi" reached the quarter-finals in Rome.
Read also: Rafał Szymura for "Wprost": I have a dream to go to the world championships Read also: Two-time Polish champion is dead. It's a huge loss for the sport
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