Coco Gauff eases past Yulia Putintseva and Victoria Azarenka beats Sloane Stephens as pair progress in Italian Open

Coco Gauff made little error as she swept past Yulia Putintseva 6-0 6-1 at the Italian Open in Rome. The sixth seed won seven straight games as she claimed the first set in style and took the front foot in the opener, before Putintseva clawed a game back to the appreciation of the Rome crowd. Ad But it would only go down as a consolation, as Gauff thundered through the next five games to put a marker down in her Rome opener.

WTA Madrid'We made a mistake' — Madrid Open organisers apologise to women's doubles finalists6 HOURS AGO The American was relentless from start to finish and wrapped up a glowing performance to move into the round of 32 in less than an hour. She fired 29 winners in the 59-minute contest and held Putintseva to just one, and broke the Kazakhstani five times without reply. «It was a tough loss for me,» Gauff said on her third-round Madrid Open loss to Paula Badosa.

«I think you could see that it just wasn't my day, my game, not how I like to appear on court. I've been working really hard since then. I'm feeling good.

I'm practising a lot better. »With the coaching change, it's tough. I think I was dealing with making that adjustment.

Especially during this part of the season, which is important to me, I felt a little bit of pressure. Now I feel like having that match, I feel like I'm just ready to build myself back up into what I know I can be." She will face 27th seed Marie Bouzkova for a spot in the Round of 16, who beat Caty McNally in straight sets from 4-0 down. Earlier on, Victoria Azarenka won her opening match 6-4 6-3 to move past Sloane Stephens.