By Chris Oddo | Tuesday May 15, 2018
Maria Sharapova continued her uptick in form with her first three-set victory since January on Tuesday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The Russian knocked off Aussie Ashleigh Barty, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2, to book a second-round clash with Dominika Cibulkova.
“I kind of felt like I played three different matches within the match because of the way the court played, the way that she played, the shadows, the little bit of a breeze that we had out there – [there was] a lot going on," Sharapova said after the match, per WTATennis.com.
Three-time Rome champion Sharapova improved to 28-4 lifetime at the Foro Italico. She saved all three break points she saved in the final set and took control to earn her ninth victory of the season and fourth on clay.
"I think it was a really good way to end the match, to get that win, to take care of those break points when it mattered, to save the break points on my serve. I felt like there's a lot of positives at the end of that match."
Another former champion had success on Tuesday as 2017 champion and No.4 seed Elina Svitolina cruised past Petra Martic, dropping just three games in the process. Svitolina struck 24 winners against 9 unforced errors to set up round of 16 tilt with either Daria Kasatkina or Danielle Collins.
No.5-seeded Jelena Ostapenko was also a winner—she took out China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 7-5.
Check out all of Tuesday’s scores from both sides of the draw at Tennis Now.