Suarez Navarro keeps the lead, Venus gets a fashion win, Bouchard enjoys Rome

1
Wilson Blade 9

Carla Suarez Navarro

Debuting her floral Lotto dress, Agnieszka Radwanska breezed past Paula Ormaechea 6-3 6-2 in the second round of Rome to tie Carla Suarez Navarro with 29 WTA-level match wins this season, but the Spaniard quickly took the lead once again, dispatching the 1999 Rome champion Venus Williams 6-4 6-2 about two hours later for her 30th match victory this year, the most of any other WTA player. As for Williams, she was looking for her 150th career claycourt victory, but it’s not surprising that she lost to the clay-loving Suarez Navarro, since she hadn’t played since Charleston.

EleVen Aurora collection by Venus

Venus may not be having the best time when it comes to tennis, but her fashion line EleVen is booming and she played the tournament in Rome just enough to draw attention to her new Aurora collection, highlighted by the EleVen Women’s Aurora Dress. The tennis champion stayed faithful to colorful tie-dye prints and the tank and skort she worked at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia look very similar to the clothes from the EleVen Fiore group, in particular the EleVen Women’s Fiore Hail Mary Strap Tank and EleVen Women’s Fiore Flutter Skort.

Here’s another proof that no loss is an absolute loss! Look, Eugenie Bouchard had fallen in the first round to Francesca Schiavone, but the Canadian has been enjoying sightseeing in the Eternal City and today she even got a rare selfie with the Pope! 🙂

Eugenie Bouchard with the Pope

In other Wednesday’s second-round matches, Serena Williams, whose participation in the tournament had a big question mark, didn’t look bothered by her thigh injury and advanced with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Andrea Petkovic, Maria Sharapova recorded her 12th straight win on clay by overcoming deficit in both sets to get past Monica Puig 6-3 7-5, Ana Ivanovic worked her way past Alize Cornet 7-6(1) 7-5, while Sara Errani eased past Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-3. The only seed that lost today was No.16 Sloane Stephens.

Simona Halep, who was the player to watch this week, since this was her first tournament since her stellar rise where she was actually having big points to defend, withdrew with a left abdominal injury. Nevertheless, she’ll overtake Victoria Azarenka in the new rankings, moving up to No.4. (Suarez Navarro photo by Jimmie48, Venus via her Facebook, Bouchard via her Twitter)

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here