Canadians Bianca Andreescu and Victoria Mboko cruised to wins over local favourites Wednesday in opening-round action at the Italian Open WTA 1000 tennis tournament in Rome.
Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., faced few problems from Italy’s Federica Urgesi in a 6-0, 6-3 victory, winning 97.1 per cent of first service points without facing a break point in a dominant first set.
The 24-year-old cruised to a 5-1 lead in the second set before Urgesi responded with a hold and a break. Andreescu put the game away with her six break-point conversion on 10 chances.
Andreescu will face 20th-seed Donna Vekic of Croatia in the second round. Vekic won the only other match between the two at last year’s Paris Olympics, which was also played on clay.
Andreescu, a former world No. 4 and the 2019 U.S. Open champion, made her return from a six-month absence to the WTA circuit earlier this year at the Open de Rouen. She improved to 2-3 on the season, with her other victory coming at the Madrid Open WTA 1000 event.
Earlier, Toronto’s Mboko posted a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 victory over Italy’s Arianna Zucchini
Toronto’s Victoria Mboko is through to the second round of the Italian Open WTA 1000 tennis tournament after posting a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Italy’s Arianna Zucchini on Wednesday in Rome.
Mboko, who advanced to her second career 1000-series event through qualifying, converted six break points, including three in a sequence that saw the 18-year-old Canadian and Zucchini trade breaks over the final five games of the second set.
Mboko, ranked 158th in the world, has compiled a 33-3 record this season while racking up five titles on the lower-tier ITF circuit.
She will face fourth seed Coco Gauff of the United States in the second round.
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., the other Canadian in the women’s draw, is seeded 24th and has a first-round bye.
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriel Diallo, both from Montreal, and Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., are entered on the men’s side.
Diallo faces American Marcos Giron in first-round action Thursday while Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov have byes.
