Italian Open: Shocks continue in Rome as Coco Gauff and Maria Sakkari suffer early exits, Victoria Azarenka withdraws

Coco Gauff and Maria Sakkari were the latest big names to fall in the early rounds of the Italian Open, while Victoria Azarenka was forced to withdraw with injury. Only three of the top 10 seeds are left standing after the first three rounds of action in Rome: defending champion Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Daria Kasatkina. Ad Sixth seed Gauff was upset by No.27-ranked Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, who earned a 4-6 6-2 6-2 comeback win in a rain-delayed match to reach the last 16.

ATP RomeGauff eases past Putintseva in Rome, Pegula stunned by Townsend11/05/2023 AT 12:27 It was Bouzkova’s first career win over a top-5 player – Gauff is the world No. 4 – on clay, and earned her a clash with Veronika Kudermetova. “Even after the first set, I just kept on fighting, and I kind of knew that I had to elevate my game to get the win today, and at least stay in the match," Bouzkova said.

«I think I did that pretty well, and then my service games started to work, and I just started to feel really comfortable on the court. Medvedev finally gets first Italian Open win as Rune, Tsitsipas advance Swiatek blasts past Tsurenko with another bagel set to continue Italian Open title defence Djokovic battles to three-set win over Dimitrov to reach Italian Open last 16 »I love to play here. I think in Europe, it might be my favourite tournament.

I didn’t play here last year, so I was really looking forward to playing here. I like the conditions and I like the crowd here, it gives me so much energy." Sakkari was another big name to bow out on Sunday as the Greek No. 9 seed fell to a 7-5 6-3 defeat against Marketa Vondrousova.