Rome, May 8 (IANS) China’s Wang Xinyu lost to Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the WTA Italian Open on Friday, failing to reach the last 32 after a match lasting 1 hour and 26 minutes.

The two players had previously met at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, earlier this year, where Wang won in three sets. In their latest encounter, Wang made a strong start by breaking serve and holding comfortably to race to a 3-0 lead in the opening set.

From the fourth game onward, however, Eala raised the intensity of her attacking play while Wang began to commit more unforced errors. Eala reeled off four consecutive games to turn the set around and eventually claimed it 6-4.

In the second set, Wang broke in the fifth game, but Eala responded immediately with a break back in the following game before sealing the set 6-3 to complete the straight-sets victory.

Wang said after the match that she could have handled key moments better, especially after taking an early lead in the opening set. “I think I could have played more aggressively when I was ahead in the first set,” she said. “At some crucial moments, I made choices that were not accurate enough or not the best ones, so I do feel it’s a bit of a pity.”

Eala’s third-round opponent will be either former champion and second seed Elena Rybakina or Greece’s Maria Sakkari.

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka and defending champion Jasmine Paolini advanced to the third round of the 2026 Italian Open on Thursday, while Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas and Italian favourite Matteo Berrettini suffered early exits in the men’s singles draw.

Sabalenka of Belarus defeated Czech player Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3 in straight sets. After an early exchange of breaks, the world No. 1 quickly took control of the match and never looked back, hitting 29 winners while committing just 13 unforced errors.

Ninth seed Paolini battled past qualifier Leolia Jeanjean 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4 in nearly three hours to survive a tough opening test.

Sixth seed Amanda Anisimova of the United States withdrew earlier in the day with a wrist injury. Lucky loser Elena-Gabriela Ruse replaced her in the draw but lost to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in three sets. Ostapenko will next face China’s Zheng Qinwen in the third round.

In the men’s singles first round, Berrettini lost in straight sets to Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, disappointing the home crowd, while Tsitsipas fell to Czech player Tomas Machac.

–IANS

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