Italian Open: Collins storms into quarter-finals

American Danielle Collins, the No 13 seed, advanced to the quarter-finals of the Italian Open by beating Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-0, 6-3 at the Foro Italico in Rome on Monday evening.

Collins, ranked No 15, won her 18th match in her last 19 and will now face the winner of the match between Greek Maria Sakkari, the No 5 seed, and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 24 seed, next.

Ahead of her victory, the American benefited from the abandonment of Russian Anna Blinkova (6-4, 0-0) and won against Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 22 seed (6-3, 6-3).

Begu, ranked No 161, won against Spanish qualifier Rebeka Masarova (5-7, 6-3, 6-4), French lucky loser Oceane Dodin (5-2 ret.) and Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 27 seed (6-2, 6-0) earlier in the tournament.

Rome WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Foro Italico, clay, USD 5.509.771, most recent results first):

• Elina Svitolina vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Maria Sakkari vs. Victoria Azarenka
• Jelena Ostapenko (9) beat Rebecca Sramkova (Q): 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Angelique Kerber: 7-5, 6-3
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Paula Badosa: 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
• Qinwen Zheng (7) beat Naomi Osaka: 6-2, 6-4
• Madison Keys (18) beat Sorana Cirstea (28): 6-2, 6-1