Italian Open: Stearns upsets Keys to reach the second week

Big surprise on the Grand Stand Arena in the first match of the day : Peyton Stearns edged out No 5 seed Madison Keys 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (3) to reach the last 16 of the Italian Open at the Foro Italico in Rome on Saturday.

Stearns, ranked No 42, will face the winner of the match between Marie Bouzkova and Japanese Naomi Osaka next Monday.

Peyton Stearns, who has already beaten a Top 20 player, Anisimova, to reach the second week in Madrid, had defeated Italian wildcard Nuria Brancaccio (6-3, 6-2) and Russian Anna Kalinskaya, the No 28 seed (6-2, 6-3), in the previous rounds.

Keys, ranked No 6 and 2025 Australian Open winner, won against Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva (7-6 (4), 6-1) in Rome. She’s 5-3 on clay this season after her quarter-final in Madrid.

Roma WTA 1000, other third-round results (Foro Italico, clay, EUR 6.009.593, most recent results first):

• Linda Noskova vs. Mirra Andreeva
• Emma Navarro vs. Clara Tauson
• Emma Raducanu vs. Veronika Kudermetova
• Coco Gauff vs. Magda Linette
• Magdalena Frech vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Elena Rybakina vs. Bianca Andreescu
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Marta Kostyuk
• Aryna Sabalenka vs. Sofia Kenin
• Elise Mertens vs. Jessica Pegula
• Marie Bouzkova vs. Naomi Osaka
• Jelena Ostapenko vs. Laura Siegemund
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Ons Jabeur
• Elina Svitolina vs. Hailey Baptiste
• Danielle Collins vs. Iga Swiatek
• Diana Shnaider vs. Jaqueline Cristian: saturday