Munar and Carballés surpassed their debuts against the Australians Hijikata and O’Connell, respectively
MADRID, 10 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa reached the round of 32 this Thursday in the WTA 1,000 tournament in Rome after beating the American Emma Navarro 1-6, 6-4 and 6-2, while Sara Sorribes beat the Argentine Nadia Podoroska ( 6-4 and 6-3), Rebeka Masarova lost against the Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu (5-7, 6-3 and 6-4), Jaume Munar defeated the Australian Rinky Hijikata (6-4 and 7-5) and Roberto Carballés advanced to the round after the withdrawal of fellow Australian Christopher O’Connell.
On the clay of the Foro Italico, the New Yorker gave up her serve as soon as she started and was in tow for the entire first set, which was resolved in half an hour in favor of Navarro. However, Badosa revived from the third game of the next set, making a comeback (from 0-2 to 4-2) that gave him fuel to score that long second set and show a good level to win the third, shorter set.
On the other hand, Sorribes successfully completed its premiere, which was unfinished the day before due to rain. Although it had been interrupted with a 1-3 in favor of her rival, the player from Castellón equalized the score in the sixth game, took the lead in the subsequent game (4-3) and broke Podoroska’s service in the tenth (6-4), to thus winning the first set.
The swings at the beginning of the second set, with two breaks on each side, gave way to a certain truce. However, Sorribes pushed the Argentine until breaking her serve in the eighth (5-3) and, in the next game, she consolidated that advantage to secure the victory and her place in the second round, where she will play against the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Masarova had a worse fate, who the day before had also seen her first round duel against Begu stopped when they were 5-7 and 6-3. Although the Barcelonan resumed it successfully, placing herself 1-3 up, the Romanian soon returned the break and made another vital one in the ninth game (5-4), immediately consolidated to achieve victory.
In the men’s individual draw, corresponding to the Masters 1,000 for the ATP, Rafa Nadal’s hard-fought victory was not the only one with Spanish color during this day. Also in the running were Munar and Carballés, who surpassed their respective debuts on the fast track.
The Mallorcan got rid of Hijikata in a couple of hours, while the Tenerife native had given up the first set (6-7) after a tough tie-break (7-9) that caused physical discomfort in O’Connell, who decided retire after being down 5-0 during the second set.