Arantxa Rus
Arantxa Rus will take on local favourite Camila Giorgi in the opening round of the Italian Open
Arantxa Rus is a regular in the ITF circuit and has played only a handful of WTA events this year. She has progressed to the main draw of the Italian Open after overcoming two rounds of qualifiers. The 32-year-old dominated her qualifying round matches and didn’t drop a single set. However, she is aware that there will be no freebies served to her in the main draw and it remains to be seen if she’s up for the challenge.
Rus has been in pretty good form at the ITF level so far this season. She won the ITF Colombia tournament in March and had earlier finished runners-up in the ITF USA event. However, she hasn’t quite been able to perform well in the WTA events. She is coming into this tournament following a second-round exit from the WTA 125 Catalonia event. The Dutch ace will be looking to turn things around and put up a good showing in Italy.
Giorgi has had a season marred by injuries and was out of action for close to a month. She made a good start to the year, winning the Merida Open in February but hasn’t been consistent enough since then. The Italian is coming into this match following a first-round exit from the Madrid Open. She will be desperate to register some positive results, especially on home turf and set a positive tone for the remainder of the season.
Date – Thursday, 11th May
Court Type – Clay outdoor surface
Telecast – Tennis Channel
Start Time – To be Announced
Location – Foro Italico
Match details – Round of 128 match
Rus and Giorgi have played each other thrice before on the WTA Tour. Both players know each other’s game pretty well. All matches have been closely fought with Giorgi having the slight upper hand and leading 2-1 on head-to-head.
It’s a difficult match to call as both players are not in their best form and have similar playing styles. We are predicting an intense encounter with Giorgi eventually coming out on top in three sets.
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