Ashleigh Barty back to winning ways defeating Shvedova in Rome Masters opener

Ashleigh Barty shook off the Madrid Open final defeat to move to R3 of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome Masters.

The Australian player needed a bit of time against Yaroslava Shvedova to find her rhythm but once she did she played lights out. It took her 79 minutes to defeat her opponent 6-4 6-1. The start of the featured an early break for Shvedova in the first game. Barty's serves was off and her tactic with her slice did not work as they went wide often.

Shvedova kept Barty at bay for the better part of the first set but slowly but surely the Australian was able to find holes in Shvedova's game. After winning her service game to make it 2-4 Barty went on a 4-0 run to win the first set 6-4. Her serving became better and Shvedova started making a lot of mistakes.

The 2nd set was complete domination from Barty who found her rhythm and after she did Shvedova could not do anything to stop her. Barty hit 7 aces, 3 double faults and 5 of 6 break points she had to close out the 2nd set with 6-1. A solid start for Barty who went on a 10-1 run since trailing 2-4 in the first set.

The end of the match featured a lovely moment where Barty gave praise to Shvedova who played extremely well early on. She moves on to R3 where she will face either Kudermetova or Garcia depending on who wins that match later today.