Women’s Italian Internationals: Jasmine Paolini and Lisa Pigato advance.

Women’s Italian Internationals: Jasmine Paolini and Lisa Pigato advance.

Five Italians were involved in the first day of the Internazionali d’Italia women’s tournament. At the end of two marathon sets both finished (and lost) at the tie-break Lucrezia Stefanini, world number 105 and entered in the draw thanks to a wild-card, succumbed to Chinese Xiyu Wang, number 75, after almost two and a half hours and having missed a set point at 6-5 in the first partial and three at 5-4 in the second.

Instead, in a match of roughly the same length and against a Chinese player almost the same name as the other, Xinyu Wang, number 60 WTA, Jasmine Paolini, number 65, won 6-4 6-7 6-2 after missing three match points at 6-5 in the second set. Lisa Pigato, number 483, won the derby with Diletta Cherubini, number 421, with a score of 7-5 2-6 6-3.

Finally, Dalila Spiteri, number 504 and winner of the prequalification tournament, succumbed sharply 6-0 6-1 to U.S. number 62 Cathy McNally. Paolini will now have to face Wimbledon champion Russian-Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, the No. 7 seed and world No. 6, while Pigato will have Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No. 8 seed and world No. 9.