Iga Swiatek on course for Madrid-Rome double, to face Keys in quarters

Topranked Iga Swiatek remained on course for an uncommon MadridRome double after beating Angelique Kerber to reach the Italian Open quarterfinals on MondayIt was a ninth straight win for Swiatek and the twotime Rome champion will next face Madison Keys after the American player eased past Sorana Cirstea 62 61 in a match that was interrupted by an environmental protestSwiatek needed eight set points to secure the Italian Open opener but had no such problems at the end of the second sealing a 75 63 victory on the first match point when Kerbers return went wideThe match against Keys will be a repeat of last weeks Madrid Open semifinal which Swiatek won The Polish player is attempting to become the first woman to win the dirt double since Serena Williams in 2013For sure playing against Maddie is not easy Swiatek said The score was pretty one way in Madrid Its kind of easy for your mind to just drift off sometimes The most important thing is to stay focused and really disciplinedKeys match in Rome was temporarily suspended at 31 in the second set after two protesters jumped onto the court and threw confetti while others from the environmentalist group glued themselves to the standsAs soon as I saw them come over the barrier my first thought was like Should I go tackle one of them But I stopped myself Keys said And then the chair umpire started yelling at me to go sit down Unfortunately its starting to become a little bit of a common thing thats happeningThe players returned to the locker room and the protestors did not resist when security intervened before police and firefighters also arrived to handle the situationAlso Read Madrid Open Swiatek finds Nadal inspiration to win titleTwo more Americans were through to the quarterfinals after thirdseeded Coco Gauff rallied to beat Paula Badosa 57 64 61 and Danielle Collins eased past IrinaCamelia Begu 60 63Secondseeded Aryna Sabalenka fought back from a set down and had to fend off three match points after getting treatment for a back problem before beating Elina Svitolina 46 61 76 7 in a match that finished well after midnight local timeTwotime champion Svitolina looked certain to secure the victory on her first match point as she had what should have been the simplest of volleys over the net with Sabalenka seemingly stranded right at the other side of the court But Svitolina hit the ball into the netVictoria Azarenka Jelena Ostapenko and Qinwen Zheng also advancedIn the mens tournament defending champion Daniil Medvedev survived a scare before prevailing against Serbian qualifier Hamad Medjedovic 76 5 26 75 in their thirdround matchNext Gen titleholder Medjedovic was given a standing ovation as he left the court after some courageous tennis but he will be regretting not making the most of a set point in the opening setThe secondseeded Medvedev will face Tommy Paul in the round of 16 after the American beat Dominik Koepfer 64 63Both of the Madrid finalists were eliminatedLast weeks winner Andrey Rublev who was seeded fourth in Rome was upset by French qualifier Alexandre Muller 36 63 62 for his first win over a top10 playerMadrid runnerup Felix AugerAliassime was beaten by ninthseeded Alex de Minaur 67 2 64 64Also advancing were Hubert Hurkacz Stefanos Tsitsipas Sebastian Baez and Nicolas JarryWith AP inputs