ORDER OF PLAY

CENTRALE -- 11:00 a.m. start
Following 1 men's match
[9] Garbiñe MUGURUZA (ESP) vs. Cori GAUFF (USA)
Following 1 men's match, not before 7:00 p.m.
[3] Sofia KENIN (USA) vs. Victoria AZARENKA (BLR)

PIETRANGELI -- 11:00 a.m. start
[14] Anett KONTAVEIT (EST) vs. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA (RUS)
Following 1 men's match
[Q] Irina-Camelia BEGU (ROU) vs. [7] Johanna KONTA (GBR)
[5] Kiki BERTENS (NED) vs. Polona HERCOG (SLO)

GRAND STAND ARENA -- 11:00 a.m. start
Following 1 men's match
Yulia PUTINTSEVA (KAZ) vs. [8] Petra MARTIC (CRO)

COURT 1 -- 11:00 a.m. start
[Q] Daria KASATKINA (RUS) vs. Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE)
[Q] Arantxa RUS (NED) vs. [12] Marketa VONDROUSOVA (CZE)
After suitable rest
[WC] Giulia GATTO-MONTICONE (ITA) / Jasmine PAOLINI (ITA) vs. [6] Veronika KUDERMETOVA (RUS) / Katerina SINIAKOVA (CZE)
After suitable rest
Hayley CARTER (USA) / Luisa STEFANI (BRA) vs. Cori GAUFF (USA) / Christina MCHALE (USA)

COURT 3 -- 11:00 a.m. start
[3] Gabriela DABROWSKI (CAN) / Jelena OSTAPENKO (LAT) vs. Lucie HRADECKA (CZE) / Andreja KLEPAC (SLO)
[7] Shuko AOYAMA (JPN) / Ena SHIBAHARA (JPN) vs. Simona HALEP (ROU) / Monica NICULESCU (ROU)
[1] HSIEH Su-Wei (TPE) / Barbora STRYCOVA (CZE) vs. Nao HIBINO (JPN) / Makoto NINOMIYA (JPN)
Magda LINETTE (POL) / Bernarda PERA (USA) vs. [4] Nicole MELICHAR (USA) / Demi SCHUURS (NED)

COURT 6 -- 12:00 p.m. start
Asia MUHAMMAD (USA) / Arina RODIONOVA (AUS) vs. [2] Timea BABOS (HUN) / ZHANG Shuai (CHN)

MATCH POINTS

Former World No.1 Garbiñe Muguruza and teenage sensation Coco Gauff will meet for the first time on Thursday in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Muguruza, a semifinalist in Rome in 2016 and 2017, picked up her 11th main-draw match-win at the event on Tuesday with a victory over fellow Grand Slam champion Sloane Stephens. The two-time Grand Slam champion has reached the quarterfinals or better at five of the six events she has played in 2020, going 18-5 across the season.

Gauff is playing in her career first claycourt event at Tour level, and notched the first WTA claycourt main-draw match-win of her career over Ons Jabeur in the opening round. She is 4-4 against players ranked in the Top 50 this season, with wins over Naomi Osaka (Australian Open), Aryna Sabalenka (Lexington), and Jabeur (Lexington and Rome).

Two Grand Slam champions will face off on Thursday when former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka meets reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin. They have met once previously, with Kenin triumphing in last year's Acapulco quarterfinals, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

Two-time Australian Open champion Azarenka is making her 12th appearance at Rome, with her best result being a trip to the flnal in 2013 (lost to Serena Williams). Azarenka has won 12 of her last 13 matches, which includes a Western & Southern Open title and a run to the US Open final just last week.

Read more: Azarenka vanquishes Venus in Rome opener

Kenin, who won her first-ever Grand Slam title in Melbourne earlier this year, is playing the Rome main draw for the second time in her career. In her main-draw debut last year, she defeated Jasmine Paolini and Madison Keys before falling to eventual champion Karolina Pliskova in three sets.

Last year's Rome finalist Johanna Konta will square off against Irina-Camelia Begu in their first meeting. Konta made her second career claycourt final at the event last year; her first-ever claycourt final had come just weeks earlier in Rabat. 

Begu posted her best result at a Premier 5 tournament to date at Rome in 2016, where she reached the semifinals, defeating Azarenka en route, before losing to eventual champion Serena Williams in the final four. 

- Insights from
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kiki bertens
NED
More Head to Head
25% Win 1
- Matches Played
75% Win 3
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polona hercog
SLO

Kiki Bertens and Polona Hercog bring a 1-1 head-to-head into their clash. Bertens retired after the first set of their first meeting at Dallas in 2012. The Dutchwoman leveled the head-to-head in Beijing last year by defeating Hercog in three sets in the round of 16.

Anett Kontaveit and Svetlana Kuznetsova will meet in the Rome second round for the second time in the last three editions. In 2018, Kontaveit beat Kuznetsova, 7-5, 7-5 to advance to the round of 16 at this event, in their only previous clash.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Kuznetsova is a two-time finalist at this tournament, having reached the championship match in 2007 (lost to Jelena Jankovic) and 2009 (lost to Dinara Safina). 

2020 Rome Shot of the Day: Azarenka’s surprise dropshot