Iga Swiatek booked her place in the Italian Open quarter-finals after she breezed past Naomi Osaka with a 6-2 6-1 victory on Monday.
The world No 3 expertly dismantled four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka in just one hour and 22 minutes and took another step towards her third WTA 1000 title in Rome.
Osaka fought well, despite being broken in the first game. She saved two break points before Swiatek fired a lovely cross-court ground stroke to take a 1-0 lead. But the 28-year-old rebounded, pulling the opening set back to 2-2.
​​​​​​Swiatek, who, prior to the tournament, had not won on clay since her French Open triumph in 2024, appears to be back to her best, winning the next four games to take the first set.
The Polish star, who hasn't advanced past the quarter-finals at a tournament this year, kept her foot on the gas to win the first two games of the second set.
She then closed out the set and the match with back-to-back breaks and set up a tie against fifth seed Jessica Pegula in the next round.
Swiatek has won this event in 2020, 2021 and 2024 but has not won a WTA 1000 event since the Cincinnati Open in August 2025.
Her resurgence in form could be down to her new coach, Francisco Roig, who had previously worked with Rafael Nadal, Matteo Berrettini and Emma Raducanu.
The world No 3 parted ways with Wim Fissette and hired Roig in April, following her second-round loss at the Australian Open.
Meanwhile Jannik Sinner claimed a 30th-straight Masters 1000 win at the Italian Open on Monday, and took a step closer to becoming only the second male player in history, after Novak Djokovic, to win the career Golden Masters.
The four-time Grand Slam champion dominated Alexei Popyrin 6-2 6-0 in front of his home fans in Rome.
The 24-year-old advances to the round of 16 to take on fellow Italian Andrea Pellegrino, who reached the next round after outlasting 20th seed Frances Tiafoe.
Sinner continues to dominate on the ATP Tour, with the Italian having won all five of the last ATP 1000 Masters events and not lost a match since the Shanghai Masters in October.
Last month, he beat Alexander Zverev in the final of the Madrid Open and now has the chance to finally claim the Italian Open, the only ATP1000 event he has not won.
"It's been a very special tournament for me, starting with a wildcard back in the day," Sinner said.
"Every year when you come here, you reflect a little bit.
"I'm very happy to be here. Let's see what's coming in the next round."
Should Sinner advance to the quarter-finals, he'll take on either Andrey Rublev or Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Two more wins would see him break Djokovic's record of 31-straight Masters victories.
Coco Gauff produced an incredible comeback on Monday, losing a first-set tie-break before saving a match point to beat world No 17 Iva Jovic, 5-7 7-5 6-2.
It is the second time in as many days that the world No 4 has come from behind to win, after going two breaks down against Solana Sierra in their round of 16 clash.
"I think I'm proud. Iva played really good tennis, we had wind, aeroplanes and phones ringing. Everything is going on," Gauff reflected.
"I'm really happy. Thanks to my team for helping me; that pep-talk really helped me."
She will take on eighth seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-finals.
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