Ons Jabeur was seeded ninth when he started the Italian Open in Rome this week, yet there has been no setback for the 2022 Madrid Open champions.
The ninth seed maintained a winning streak by defeating Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the first round of the 2022 Italian Open.
After playing three three-sets of the six he played last week en route to winning his first career WTA level 1000 title, the Tunisian looks unlikely to experience much drama in claiming a seventh straight win.
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The ninth seed managed to snatch the first eight games in her first match in eight seasons against Cirstea and lead 6-0, 5-2, but the Romanian had other ideas.
Three points away from the deciding set, Jabeur calmed down after losing four games in a row. He held on and started to heat up again in the tiebreak, eventually securing a 6-0, 7-6 win with the second set taking more than twice as long as the first.
On his third visit to Rome as well as his second appearance in the main draw, Jabeur made it to the second round of the Italian Open for the first time.
Aiming for an eighth straight win and a place in the last 16, Ons Jabeur will next face Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.
Tomljanovic set foot in the second round of this week’s Italian Open winning 6-3, 4-2 when her Italian opponent Camila Giorgi decided to withdraw from the match.
Meanwhile, the first meeting between the US Open champions ended in an unexpected way. 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu qualified for the second round after her opponent, 2021 US Open champion, Emma Raducanu was forced to withdraw due to a lower back injury.
After losing 6-1, 6-1 to 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Rose Collins in Madrid last week, the Canadian was dominant as she started her match against world number 12 Raducanu in Rome.
With Andreescu leading 5-2 in the first set, Briton Raducanu left the court for medical reasons and he could only finish four more games before shaking hands at the net.
After dropping serve for the third time at 6-2, 2-1 ahead of Andreescu, Raducanu decided he could not continue the game, then told reporters it was an injury he had been dealing with since the third round defeat of the Madrid Open this season.
Awaiting Andreescu in the second round of the Italian Open was Spaniard Nuria Parrizas Diaz who advanced after her opponent and compatriot Sara Sorribes Tormo withdrew from the match with a back injury as Sorribes Tormo took a 6-1, 4-3 lead.
