Five things from Rome’s opening day: Zheng moves on in three; Andreescu rolls

Zheng Qinwen kicked off her campaign ain Rome with a come-from-behind win over Anna Bondar in the first round Tuesday. Bondar, who knocked out top-10 player Elina Svitolina last week in Madrid, split the first two sets with Zheng and led by a break on two occasions in the decider.

But the Chinese player, ranked in the top five just 11 months ago, fought back to win the last four games and close out the match 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 2 hours, 18 minutes. With the win, she improved to 3-0 against Bondar on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz.

This marked Zheng’s fourth win in 2026 after dropping the first set. It also marked her 11th win in Rome, the most by a Chinese player in the Open Era. She will next meet No. 30 seed Cristina Bucsa for a spot in the third round.

Here are a few more storylines emerged from a busy Tuesday in Rome, where the main draw began and qualifying wrapped at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Andreescu wins battle of former Grand Slam champions

In a first-round matchup between the 2019 U.S. Open champion and the 2020 Australian Open champion, Bianca Andreescu scored a 6-4, 7-5 win over Sofia Kenin.

This was Andreescu’s fifth win in seven career meetings against Kenin, avenging a loss to the American in Charleston last month. It was only her second main-draw win on tour in 2026. She will next meet 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic for a place in the third round.

Krejcikova sets up Sabalenka matchup in second round

Playing her first match on tour since Dubai in February due to a left thigh injury, former French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova made a winning start to her clay season with a 6-2, 6-4 win over France’s Elsa Jacquemot.

Although it was a straight-sets win, the match lasted 1 hour, 45 minutes, with Krejcikova saving nine of 10 break points on her serve while converting four of nine opportunities on Jacquemot’s serve.

Her reward is a second-round clash against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka holds a 6-1 edge in their career head-to-head, including 1-0 on clay, but this will be their first meeting since the 2024 Australian Open.

Zakharova saves five match points to score dramatic win over Yastremska

In the most thrilling first-round match of the day, Anastasia Zakharova and Dayana Yastremska battled for more than three hours before heading into a final-set tiebreak.

Yastremska had saved two match points in the 12th game and built a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak. However, Zakharova won seven consecutive points to complete the turnaround and win 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 to move into the second round. She will face 13th-seeded Linda Noskova next.

Other first-round results

• Zeynep Sonmez d. Jennifer Ruggeri 4-6, 6-2, 6-2
• McCartney Kessler d. Lucia Bronzetti 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
• Antonia Ruzic d. Kamila Rakhimova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
• Oleksandra Oliynykova d. Petra Marcinko 6-1, 6-3
• Ann Li d. Zhang Shuai 1-6, 6-4, 6-2
• Talia Gibson d. Martina Trevisan 6-4, 0-6, 6-3

Potapova leads qualifiers into main draw

Eight players secured their spots in the main draw Tuesday after winning their second-round qualifying matches. The most notable name was top seed in qualifying, Anastasia Potapova, who scored a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Nikola Bartunkova.

Potapova reached the final in Linz and the semifinals in Madrid to climb to No. 38 in the rankings this week. But with the entry list cutoff coming four weeks prior, she had to come through qualifying in Rome. With Tuesday’s win, she has now won 12 of her last 14 matches on tour – all on clay.

Other final-round qualifying results:

• (22) Sinja Kraus def. (2) Elena-Gabriela Ruse 7-6, 6-2
• Leolia Jeanjean def. (6) Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6, 5-7, 6-3
• (10) Taylor Townsend def. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva 6-2, 6-3
• Alina Korneeva def. (11) Lilli Tagger 6-3, 6-3
• Federica Urgesi def. (16) Veronika Erjavec 6-4, 6-1
• (17) Simona Waltert def. Yue Yuan 6-2, 1-6, 7-5
• Noemi Basiletti def. (18) Daria Snigur 6-3, 6-7, 6-4
• (19) Tamara Korpatsch def. Mayar Sherif 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 
• Anhelina Kalinina def. (21) Kate Volynets 6-2, 6-3
• Dalma Galfi def. (24) Julia Grabher 7-6, 6-4
• Rebeka Masarova def. Jil Teichmann 1-6, 6-1, 6-1