Elena Rybakina makes winning start at the Rome Open

Elena Rybakina faced a tricky challenge at the Rome Open but she managed to overcome it to cruise in two sets and secure the next round of the event.

Rybakina faced a native player which is always a bit tricky cause the majority of Italians show up well for this event. She faced Paolini and took an early break which seemed to indicate that she wasn't bothered by the Italian however things turned a bit after that. Despite holding a double break of 3-0, Rybakina lost four games in a row to fall behind 3-4.

She managed to stabilize a bit and find a good rhythm once more but couldn't break Paolini after that ending up in a tiebreak. She proved too good for Paolini in the tiebreaking taking it 7-4 which made things a lot easier in the second set. Somewhat expectedly, the Kazakh player continued to play well while her opponent didn't.

She proceeded to smash Paolini in the second set 6-1 to secure the next round. Quite dominant for the most part though with some minor hiccups as well.