Naomi Osaka notches first-round win in Rome

Former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan continued momentum from her tournament title on Sunday with a first-round win Wednesday over Italy's Sara Errani at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome.

Osaka dispatched Errani 6-2, 6-3 in 79 minutes. Osaka fired 40 winners, had a 7-0 advantage in aces and converted 5 of 8 break-point opportunities.

Now ranked No. 48 in the world, Osaka has two Australian Open (2019, 2021) and two U.S. Open titles (2018, 2020) to her credit. Last Sunday, the 27-year-old won her first tournament in her comeback from maternity leave, a WTA 125 (low-level) clay-court event in Saint-Malo, France.

"I didn't really have too much of an ego playing that tournament," Osaka said after her win on Wednesday. "Obviously, I would have been really disappointed to lose in the first round. I guess I would think that people would say that if I didn't win the trophy. ... There's a lot of situations that could have occurred. For me, I just wanted to focus on the tennis. I wanted to rack up experience on clay."

The tournament in France was a tune-up for the French Open. But first there's the competition in Rome.

"I've always told people that I'm OK, like, playing on Court 16 if I have to, anyways," Osaka said. "The reason I came back wasn't to play on center courts all the time, it's because I really enjoy the game."

In other action on Wednesday, Great Britain's Emma Raducanu eliminated 19-year-old qualifier Maya Joint of Australia 7-5, 6-7 (1), 6-3 in 2 hours, 44 minutes.

Russia's Anastasia Potapova outlasted Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3. American Caroline Dolehide won a battle with Australia's Olivia Gadecki 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-2 in 2 hours, 48 minutes.

Canadian Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, dispatched Italian wild card Federica Urgesi 6-0, 6-3 in 69 minutes.

Other straight-set winners included Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, France's Varvara Gracheva, Canada's Victoria Mboko, Germany's Eva Lys, Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, American Katie Volynets and Russians Kamilla Rakhimova, Veronika Kudermova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Greece's Maria Sakkari won when Switzerland's Belinda Bencic retired after losing the first set 6-2.

Romania's Elena-Gabriella Ruse rallied to beat Russia's Polina Kudermetova 6-7 (10), 6-4, 6-2 in 2 hours, 52 minutes.

Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto got past Russia's Elina Avanesyan 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. American Ashlyn Krueger bounced back to down Hungary's Anna Bondar 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Colombia's Emiliana Arango ousted Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova 7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4 in 3 hours, 12 minutes.

Croatia's Antonia Ruzic, 22, rallied past Roman wild card Tyra Caterina Grant 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Grant, 17, had two match points at 5-4 in the third set. Ruzic won the final four games.

Serbia's Olga Danilovic also recovered from a slow start to beat Czech Katerina Siniakova 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

--Field Level Media