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WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.18- When in Rome…

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WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.18- When in Rome…

*WEEK 19*

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[Rome Q/1st Rd.-3rd Rd.]


RISERS: Anastasia Potapova/AUS and Maria Timofeeva/UZB

…and we start off with the former Hordette portion of our program.

Russian-turned-Austrian Potapova has found *something* over the past month. It just took a loss to get the ball rolling.

In Madrid, Potapova became the first lucky loser to reach a 1000 semifinal. This past week, she was back in the qualifying rounds in Rome, this time *playing* her way into the MD with victories over Irina-Camelia Begu and Nikola Bartunkova (though the Czech would have a second life). She then proceeded to rip off wins over Dalma Galfi, Karolina Muchova and Liudmila Samsonova — the latter two by identical 6-3/6-2 scores — to reach her first Italian Open Round of 16.

Potapova is now 14-3 on clay this year, with a RU in Linz kicking off her even bigger (though slightly disjointed) rush in Madrid and Rome (where she’s a combined 10-2 so far). She’s inside the Top 30 in the “live” rankings.

In Istanbul, Russian-turned-Uzbeki Timofeeva won a 125 crown to claim her biggest singles titles since taking Budapest in 2023 as a lucky loser in her tour-level MD debut.

Timofeeva knocked off the likes of the recently-streaking Noma Noha Akugue, Francesca Jones and (a Pastry to watch for RG, whether it be in qualifiying or maybe as a wild card) Alice Tubello, who is 23-5 this clay season with three ITF finals, two titles and a 125 SF.

In the final, Timofeeva defeated Donna Vekic (who needed this result, considering she dropped 23 rankings spots last Monday down to #89) 6-4/6-2 to improve to 12-4 on clay in ’26 (she’s 5-6 on hard courts) and climb back into the “live” Top 120. She also won a $75K title on the dirt just last month.

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SURPRISE: Noemi Basiletti/ITA

…20-year old Basiletti wasn’t scheduled to have a role in her home event in Rome. She wasn’t even assured of playing in qualifying. But a successful *pre*-qualifying tournament run got her that chance, and she more than rode the wave to the week of her career.

The #427-ranked Italian (the ITA #23) notched Top 100 wins over Emiliana Arango and Daria Snigur to reach her maiden WTA tour-level MD, then she added a *third* Top 100 win with an upset of Ajla Tomljanovic, a match which took two days to complete.

Basiletti fell in the 2nd Round to Elina Svitolina, but her work will lift her over 100 spots in the rankings to a “live” position inside the Top 325 heading into the event’s second week.

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VETERANS: Sorana Cirstea/ROU and Taylor Townsend/USA

…maybe Cirstea should have announced her final season *years* ago.

After already having won a title in Cluj, reached the Rouen SF and Miami 4th Round, the just-turned-36 year old, would-be-retiree added “first career #1 win” to her growing 2026 resume in Rome with an upset of an ailing Aryna Sabalenka that moves the Romanian *this* much closer to becoming the oldest player to make her Top 20 debut.

After a 2nd Round win over her even-more-senior opponent Tatjana Maria, Cirstea weathered the storm of an in-form Sabalenka early in their match on Saturday. But as Sabalenka’s serve became less effective (especially her second serve, likely because of a back injury which received treatment in the 3rd set), Cirstea’s return game and controlled attack proved to have the sufficient staying power to outlast the world #1, even after she failed to serve out the match on her first attempt. She simply broke back, then got the job done right after that, winning a 7-5 decider.

Cirstea thus becomes the fifth-oldest player to record a win over the world #1, and oldest to do it for the first time.

Up to a “live” #26, Cirstea continues to be in play to become the oldest player to make her Top 20 debut, a feat which would clear the bar set by a 35-year old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni back in 2017. If she won the title, she’d be all the way up to #15.

And, yeah, about that…

Meanwhile, Townsend’s run in Rome didn’t last past this weekend, but a tip of the cap to the Bannerette vet for not worrying about “load management” or any such thing after a long work week in Madrid.

She and Katerina Siniakova won the Madrid doubles title last Sunday, but Townsend was quick-as-a-flash in Rome for singles qualifying, where she reached the MD with wins over Rebecca Sramkova and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva. She didn’t stop there, either, and posted additional victories against Nuria Brancaccio and Marie Bouzkova before finally going out to fellow Bannerette Iva Jovic.

Townsend’s singles results are never going to equal her doubles, where she’s ranked #2 and has won four titles in ’26 (and is looking to follow up a Sunshine Double w/ Siniakova with a Dirty Double if the pair can take Rome, as well), but she’s 14-7 on the year, has MD wins in the last three 1000 events and played in her maiden WTA final earlier this season in Austin.

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COMEBACK: Karolina Pliskova/CZE

…having reached the QF in both Linz and Madrid, it’s safe to say that the 34-year old Czech vet is currently one of the more in-form players this clay season despite having played just three matches in 2025 due to a problematic foot injury that required multiple surgeries.

A three-time Rome finalist from 2019-21 — she won the first, retired in the second, and got double-bageled in the third (yeah, it was THAT final) — Pliskova rallied from a set down vs. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, saved three MP against Jaqueline Cristian and handled Laura Siegemund in straights over the first week of Italian Open play, setting up a Round of 16 match-up with none other than Elena Rybakina.

Whether Pliskova could be a surprise contender at RG won’t have anything to do with any recent runs in Paris. Her best RG result was a SF in 2017, but she’s gone just 7-7 since.

She’s 13-5 this season, though, and 9-2 on clay. It’ll at least be something to note in a few weeks time.

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FRESH FACES: Nikola Bartunkova/CZE and Liang En-shuo/TPE

…Bartunkova’s breakthrough stretch continues in Rome, with a little help from her friends. Well, at least the players who pulled out of their spot in the MD (especially the ill Vicky Mboko, whose spot she claimed), opening the door for the 20-year old Czech to not only enter the draw as a lucky loser but to do so with a 1st Round bye, as well.

After getting the super-duper-free pass through the 1st round — after having posted a qualifying win over Ashlyn Krueger, only to fall to the on-fire-on-clay Anastasia Potapova (a semifinlist in Madrid as a LL, BTW) in the final round — the Crusher took down Italian Tyra Grant, then upset Madison Keys in three sets to reach the Round of 16, her best 1000 result (in her first 1000 MD).

It’s her second Top 20 win this year, having upset #10 Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open to reach the 3rd Round in her major MD debut in January. Bartunkova has already jumped 29 spots in the “live” rankings to a new career-high ranking of #65.

Bartunkova’s past reads like so many of her fellow Czechs. She was junior slam finalist at Wimbledon in 2023 (as well as in the ’22 RG girls’ doubles). Last year was the start of her breakthrough period, as won three ITF titles (the biggest a $75K), reached the Guadalajara 500 SF in September, and her maiden 125 final in October ahead of her qualifier-to-3rd Round result in Melbourne that resulted in her maiden Top 10 win (Bencic) and Top 100 debut (as well as a QF on home court in Ostrava).

Of course, the reason there aren’t many notes from Bartunkova’s 2024 season is because she missed half the year after receiving a six-month provisional ban after a positive drug test despite ultimately being judged to have been “at no vault” in the violation. See Sinner and Swiatek… or, you know, not.

I mention this simply because the mere fact that Bartunkova was caught up in the positive test means that no matter how her career goes she’ll always be certain to find social media trolls dubbing her a “cheater” after any big victory or big loss. I saw it happen soon after her win over Keys. I figured it’s better to be prepared ahead of time, in order to prep the eye-roll muscles and all, than to be caught unawares later, dontcha know.

In Jiujang, Liang pulled her ’26 season up by its proverbial bootstraps in the 125 event to claim her first singles title since winning a $25K challenger back in 2018, not long after she’d swept the girls s/d titles at the Australian Open that year.

Currently ranked #413, Liang held a Top 150 ranking in 2019. This year, though, before this past week she hadn’t been past the 2nd Round in any of her first five events, though she’d managed to get in a decent amount of work in the qualifying rounds, going 7-2 there.

In Jiujang, the Taiwanese 25-year old got wins over Taylah Preston, Bai Zhuoxuan and You Xiaodi in a 3-6/6-4/6-1 final, the biggest of Liang’s career. With the result, she’s back in the “live” Top 265.

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DOWN: Aryna Sabalenka/BLR and Jasmine Paolini/ITA

…with Sabalenka’s second straight disappointing big event result this spring, the door is officially ajar.

After failing to convert six MP vs. Hailey Baptiste in the Madrid QF last week, Sabalenka exited in the 3rd Round in Rome to Sorana Cirstea, seeing her quick start in the match erode over the course of play as a back injury (for which she received treatment during an MTO in the 3rd set) made her serve less effective while the veteran Romanian didn’t succumb to the pressure of trying to pull off the biggest win of her career (though it took her *two* tries to serve out the match).

So, Sabalenka has followed up a 12-0 run during the Sunshine Double on hard courts (on which she’s 23-1 in ’26) with a 4-2 stint on clay in the Dirty Double. The third and fourth-lowest ranked players to defeat her as #1 — #32 Baptiste, #27 Cirstea — in her 89-going-on-90 career weeks in the top spot have done so in her last three matches over a twelve-day stretch.

It leaves a door open for #2 Elena Rybakina to close significantly on her in the rankings. She failed to make a great deal of headway in Madrid, but should the Kazakh win the title in Rome she’d be just 470 points behind Sabalenka for the #1 ranking. Sabalenka has far more points to defend in Paris, having reached the final, while Rybakina exited in the Round of 16.

Meanwhile, though Paolini fought her way back from being a set down to a title defense-opening win earlier in the week, her run as the Italian Open singles champion — she was the first home product to win in Rome since 1985 — ended before the mid-event turn as she failed to convert three MP in the 2nd set vs. Elise Mertens and went on to fall in three in the 3rd Round on Saturday.

The loss drops the current world #8 to #13 in the “live” rankings, as she slips out of the Top 10 for the first time since May 2024.

Paolini’s lone singles win *does* allow her to (barely) keep her head above water at 11-10 on the year, though her lone highlight is probably her performance on BJK Cup Qualifiers weekend, when she notched a singles win and teamed with Sara Errani to clinch the tie (and return trip to the BJK Finals event for the defending champs) with a doubles win over Japan.

Paolini still has her Rome doubles title with Errani from a year ago to defend, with the pair’s first match coming up on Monday.

They’re the #1 seeds in Rome but, as with Paolini’s singles, 2026 has been a trying one for the team. They reached the Miami final, but are just 11-6 in WTA play with no titles. In 2025, they claimed both the Rome and Roland Garros crowns during clay court season.

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ITF PLAYERS: Ekaterina Tupitsyna/RUS and Kaitlin Quevedo/ESP

…since making an unseeded run to the AO girls’ singles final in January, 17-year old Tupitsyna has played just four matches at the junior level, but she’s gone 15-0 in the pros.

This weekend, the young Hordette moved into a ’26 circuit-leading tie with her third title run, this one (like the other two) a $15K challenger in Egypt, taking the Hurgahda title with a 6-2/6-3 win over Egypt’s Nada Fouad.

In Saint-Gaudens (FRA), Quevedo continued to post newsworthy 2026 results. She made her tour-level MD debut (as a qualifier) in Auckland in January, notching a win over Peyton Stearns in her maiden 1st Round match, went 2-0 in BJK Cup Qualifiers action as Spain knocked off Slovenia in a road tie to advance to the BJK Finals event, and handed Venus Williams her tenth consecutive loss in a 1st Round encounter in Madrid.

This week the 20-year old claimed her tenth career ITF crown with a 6-3/6-2 win in the final over countrywoman Andrea Lazaro Garcia.

Quevedo is at a “live” career-high of #125 heading into the coming week.

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JUNIOR STARS: Victoria Luiza Barros/BRA and Kristina Liutova/RUS

…so, Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva has company when it comes to being a rising Brazilian junior.

16-year old Barros, the girls’ #9, won her biggest career junior crown at the Offenbach (GER) 500 event this weekend, defeating Serbia’s Anastasija Cvetkovic in the final to take the honors.

The title finally completes the journey in a series of 500 events that the Brazilian has been on since late last year, when she reached the Merida (November, w/ a loss to Alena Kovackova after having beaten her sister Jana) and Orange Bowl (December, w/ a loss to Sun Xinran) semifinals, and the Gaspar final (a loss to Leme da Silva) in March.

Barros and Leme da Silva combined last month — including going 3-0 in doubles together — to lead the Brazil squad (the women’s team, not the juniors) out of BJK Cup Americas I play and into the Playoffs later this year (a home tie vs. Canada).

Meanwhile, in Indian Harbour Beach (Florida), 16-year old Hordette Liutova picked up her second ’26 pro title with a 6-1/6-7(4)/6-3 victory in the final over Julia Riera (a tour-level Bogota quarterfinalist this year who was on an 18-4 run heading into the final), adding a $100K win to the $35K title she won in Las Vegas in March for her maiden ITF win.

In the late months of last year, Liutova won the J300 College Park event ahead of the U.S. Open, as well as the IMG Academy Int’l J300 (aka “Eddie Herr”) and reached the Orange Bowl J300 final.

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[Rome Q/1st Rd.-3rd Rd.]

1. Rome 1st Rd. – Anastasia Zakharova def. Dayana Yastremska

…4-6/7-5/7-6(6). One would be hard-pressed to find a more devastating way to lose a match than the way Yastremska lost this one.

After having already blown a 6-4/4-2 lead and being sent to a 3rd set by Hordette Zakharova, the Ukrainian managed to flip the script *back* by saving a pair of MP (at 6-5) and forcing a deciding TB. She then raced to a 6-1 lead, holding *quintuple* MP. But it wasn’t a big enough scoreboard edge.

Zakharova swept the final seven points, winning 8-6. It still wasn’t enough to earn a handshake, though.

The WTA’s YouTube highlight package for this match was three minutes long, but somehow manage to show *zero* of the five consecutive MP that Zakharova saved (it literally jumps from Yastremska leading 2-0 in the 3rd to Zakharova’s converted MP in the TB). It did show Yastremska’s understandable reaction to the loss, though.


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2. Rome 2nd Rd. – Anna Kalinskaya def. Katerina Siniakova

…4-6/7-6(4)/7-5. Siniakova’s loss wasn’t quite as instantly dramatic (i.e. all her MP weren’t consecutive), but she nearly doubled Yastremska’s number of squandered MP on the day.

They *did* have almost the identical reaction to their shared situation, though the Czech didn’t wait until the match was over for hers…

Siniakova led 6-4/4-2, serving for the match at 5-3 and then having five MP in game 9 on Kalinskaya’s serve. The Hordette survived, then won a 7-4 TB to force a 3rd set.

In the decider, Siniakova led 5-3 once again, and served at 5-4, holding four *more* MP (for 9 in all) before dropping serve. Two games later, Kalinskaya broke serve again to complete the 3:29 comeback.

It’s the second singles match this season that Siniakova has lost after having (even just one) MP, tying her for the WTA lead.

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3. Rome 3rd Rd. – Sorana Cirstea def. Aryna Sabalenka

…2-6/6-3/7-5. After Sabalenka got off to a hot start, a tweaked back and Cirstea’s returns of Sabalenka’s diminished second serves led the world #1 down a rarely-traveled path that ended in an early-round exit.

After taking an MTO for her back part-way through the 3rd, Sabalenka managed to get herself back into the set soon afterward, breaking Cirstea as she served for the match at 5-4. But she couldn’t back it up, dropping serve again a game later and finally seeing the Romanian serve out first career #1 win at 7-5.

At 36, Cirstea is the fifth-oldest player to defeat a world #1 (behind only Serena, Venus, Martina the Original and BJK), and the oldest when she pulled off her maiden #1 win.

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4. Rome 2nd Rd. – Iga Swiatek def. Caty McNally

…6-1/6-7(5)/6-3. Some might view this as a “kick-starting” win when Swiatek needed one desperately. One (raises hand) might also see it as a red flag, since if it takes so much effort to take out McNally after holding a commanding lead, how will things go when the opponents get better and the stakes bigger? Iga isn’t normally in the role of Serena, where one “saved” match can suddenly flip a switch and be a prelude to a magnificent run.

At any rate, after holding a 6-1/5-3 lead, Swiatek twice served for the win in the 2nd set here, at 5-4 and 6-5. Nerves and errors got the best of her, McNally won a TB to hold on, then Swiatek finally re-established herself in the 3rd.

Apparently “The Doctor” (after smartly receding into the shadows a few weeks ago) was back on public view for this one, so here we go again?

Swiatek got no — and I mean zero, maybe even negative — pushback in the next round from Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who lost to the Pole in Rome for the second straight year. In both match-ups, the Italian posted just a *single* game on the scoreboard, losing 6-1/6-0 on both occasions.

Hmmm, so I suspect this result will cue the usual overreaction amongst the Iga-ites, with a round of “she’s back!” and the like. Of course, we’ve seen this before. And we shall see whether the entire pattern repeats or not this time, as well.

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5. Rome 3rd Rd. – Elise Mertens def. Jasmine Paolini

…4-6/7-6(5)/6-3. The wins-from-MP-down avalanche of results in Rome continued into the weekend, as Paolini’s attempt to defend her ’25 crown was run off the road despite the Italian leading 6-4/4-2 and hold three MP on Mertens’ serve at 6-5.

After her first eight career Top 10 wins came on hard court between 2017-21, the dirt has provided the most likely big stage for Mertens since. Career Top 10 win #13 is her fourth on clay in the last five, from 2021-26.

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6. Rome Q2 – Noemi Basiletti def. Daria Snigur 6-3/6-7(6)/6-4

Rome Q2 – Federica Urgesi def. Veronika Erjavec 6-4/6-1

…both Italians — #427 Basiletti and #410 Urgesi — made their way through *pre*-qualifying to earn wild cards into the qualifying draw. Then both played their way into the main draw, too.

Basiletti posted back-to-back Top 100 wins over Emiliana Arango and Daria Snigur, while Urgesi’s wins over Renata Zarazua and Veronika Erjavec allowed the former junior doubles star (AO23 girls’ doubles winner) to play in the Italian Open 1st Round for a *second* straight season. Last year, a wild card allowed her to make her tour-level MD debut (a loss to Andreescu).

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7. Rome 3rd Rd. – Coco Gauff def. Solana Sierra

…5-7/6-0/6-4. With ’25 champion Jasmine Paolini ousted from the ’26 field on Saturday, last year’s runner-up Gauff nearly joined her on the same day.

Young Argentine Sierra, who just reached the 4th Round in Madrid, held a double-break lead at 3-0 in the 3rd before Gauff came charging back. The world #4 won five consecutive games to lead 5-3, holding a MP in game 9 but seeing Sierra get the break. Gauff closed it out on MP #3 a game later.

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8. Rome 1st Rd. – Barbora Krejcikova def. Elsa Jacquemot

…6-2/6-4. Krejcikova plays and wins (while also battling an inconsiderately noisy crowd) her first match since Dubai in mid-February, after missing time with an elbow injury after she’d already been managing her way back from a knee injury in ’25.

This was the Czech’s 47th match in the nearly two years since she her comeback-from-injury triumph at Wimbledon in 2024. Her 2nd Round opponent in Rome, Aryna Sabalenka, was playing in her 29th match *of this season*…

Krejcikova notched just five games in a 6-2/6-3 loss to the world #1, but she (crossing fingers) hopefully will soon head to Paris still physically intact.

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9. Rome 1st Rd. – Bianca Andreescu def. Sofia Kenin

…6-4/7-5. Though she came into Rome at 21-9 on the season, this was just the second MD win at tour level for Andreescu in 2026, her first since an opening round win in Charleston at the start of the clay season.

That Charleston journey ended a round later at the hands of Kenin, so they’re even.

Andreescu lost in the 2nd Round in Rome to Belinda Bencic.

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10. Istanbul 125 1st Rd. – Alice Tubello def. Sarah Rakotomanga

…6-0/5-7/7-6(2). One of the breakout achievers of 2025, Rakotomanga’s slip thus far in 2026 has mostly flown under the radar. But with Roland Garros just around the corner, the light begins to shine once again on the Pastries, of which none (and w/ the best of her generation, Caroline Garcia, now retired) are currently ranked in the Top 40.

The highest ranked is #43 Lois Boisson, who is set to lose the majority of her points should lightning not strike again in Paris as she seeks to defend last year’s surprise SF after barely playing since the end of last season.

Rakotomanga’s 1st Round loss in Istanbul drops her to 1-10 on the season (her only win came in BJK zone play, a three-setter over 18-year old Teodora Kostovic). She’s 0-11 in non-Cup matches going back to last year, and 8-18 overall since she was a maiden WTA champ in Sao Paulo in September.

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11. Rome 2nd Rd. – Nikola Bartunkova def. Tyra Grant

…4-6/6-3/6-4. Vicky Mboko was the latest to fall to a gastrointestinal illness, causing her to pull out and be replaced by lucky loser Nikola Bartunkova (w/ a 1st Round bye).

Considering Mboko’s form/health this spring, Grant might have been in a better place had she faced the Canadian at this particular moment in the season. Instead, the world #94 fell in three to #234, to the dismay of the Italian crowd.

A round earlier, Grant had posted a well-received 1st Round win over fellow Italian Lisa Pigato after dropping the opening set, eliciting a we-really-dug-into-the-record-books-for-this-one-so-darn-it-we’ll-going-to-use-it statistiscal record announcement from the tournament.

Usually that sort of “first time since…” statistical minutiae is only posted in order to find a way to mention Serena Williams, so some kudos are due to the person who managed to pull that one out of the tournament history haystack.

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12. Rome 3rd Rd. – Nikola Bartunkova def. Madison Keys

…6-3/1-6/6-4. Bartunkova gets her second Top 20 of the season to reach the Round of 16 in Rome.

But, let’s be honest, this win isn’t the career moment that her upset of Belinda Bencic was to reach the AO 3rd Round earlier this year in her major debut run, considering Keys has been close to irrelevent (save, as usual, for a couple of nice results) since she won in Melbourne last year. I’d say that such a development is a surprise, as the chances seemed (at least) 50/50 fifteen months ago that Keys winning her first major title might spark a further, extended career peak rather than just be the prelude to a reversion to her career-long pattern of sporadic big results leading to a series of lackluster follow-ups in their aftermath… but, really, it’s no surprise at all. Just disappointing.

Keys has played in zero finals since winning the Australian Open. But she’ll always have Melbourne.

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13. Rome 1st Rd. – Talia Gibson def. Martina Trevisan

…6-4/0-6/6-3. Gibson finally picks up her first win since reaching the Round of 16 in Miami (part of her 11-3, back-to-back QF/4th Round runs during the Sunshine Swing), ending a four-match losing streak that took place across three continents (North America, Australian and Europe) and four nations (USA, AUS, ESP and FRA) over the last six weeks.

Gibson lost in three to Diana Shnaider in the 2nd Round.

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14. Rome 2nd Rd. – Oleksandra Oliynykova def. Clara Tauson

…6-1/3-1 ret. Somehow — even with a pair of SF (Abu Dhabi) and QF (Dubai 1000) results and AO 3rd Round run — the Dane’s follow-up to her career year in ’25 has (so far) been a dud. With this one-and-done outing, Tauson is 8-9 on the year, with three retirements.

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15. Rome 2nd Rd. – Zheng Qinwen def. Cristina Bucsa

…7-6(6)/6-2. Bucsa’s career run in Merida hasn’t exactly led to a confidence-laced surge for the Spaniard. After sweeping the singles/doubles titles in the Mexican event, she’s lost four of her next five matches. She’s 7-9 on the year, with five wins coming in Merida.
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16. Rome 2nd Rd. – Viktorija Golubic def. Maya Joint

…7-5/6-2. Joint returns to action for the first time since Indian Wells after working through a lower back injury, but loses for the seventh straight time and falls to 2-9.

The Aussie’s last win came on January 14, when Ajla Tomljanovic retired just two games into their 2nd Round match. Her only completed win in ’26? Over Sofia Kenin in the 1st Round in Adelaide.

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17. $50K Lopota GEO Final – Vendula Valdmannova def. Carolyn Ansari

…4-6/6-4/6-0. Another week, another Crusher champion.

18-year old Valdmannova picks up her fourth ITF win, her second of ’26 and the biggest of her career.

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18. Rome 3rd Rd. – Jessie Pegula def. Rebeka Masarova

…6-0/6-0. Masarova — who qualified and posted MD wins over Oksana Selekhmeteva and Leylah Fernandez after having previously been 0-1 in her Rome career — was set to be mentioned in the “Surprise” section of this post, until this result. I think being double-bageled counts as “playing your way out” of any sort of honor. Still, endings aside, the Swiss (again, after a stint with ESP) had a good week.

With this win, after her 6-4/6-0 2nd Round win over Zeynep Sonmez, Pegula has put up three straight love sets and won nineteen games in a row. She’ll get Bartunkova next, with the Swiatek/Osaka winner potentially waiting in a QF.

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HM- $35K Platja d’Aro ESP Final – Ane Mintegi del Olmo def. Sada Nahimana

…6-0/6-3. Mintegi del Olmo, the bespectacled ’21 Wimbledon junior champ whose comeback from several injury-riddled seasons has this year included a $35K title in March and 125 semifinal last month, adds another ITF win to her resume.

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[Rome Q/1st Rd.-3rd Rd.]


1. Rome 1st Rd. – Karolina Pliskova def. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro

…4-6/6-3/7-5. Another loss for the Spaniard that rightly could have been a win.

Bouzas Maneiro took the 1st set from Pliskova, then started the 2nd set with a break of serve. The Czech rallied to take the set, then led 5-3 in the decider before Bouzas Maneiro got things back even at 5-5. She then promptly dropped serve in the next game, and saw Pliskova quickly hold to close out the win.

Bouzas Maneiro’s first win of the season was the biggest of her career, an upset of Coco Gauff at the United Cup on January 5. She then dropped her next four matches in 1st Round losses, and currently stands at 5-12 on the year.

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2. Rome 2nd Rd. – Karolina Pliskova def. Jaqueline Cristian

…6-7(5)/7-6(2)/6-4. Pliskova was at it again a round later.

It was Cristian who pulled the rabbit out of her hat in the 1st, first breaking back to level the score at 2-2 (on BP #4), then saving seven BP in game 7 to hold for 4-3. The Romanian then ralled from 5-4 down in the TB to take the match lead. She took a 6-5 lead in the 2nd, holding three MP. Pliskova saved all three, then raced to a 6-0 TB lead en route to taking the breaker 7-2 to knot the match.

After Cristian grabbed an early break lead (2-0), Pliskova took control and soon went up 5-3. After failing to convert her first MP on Cristian’s serve, the Czech did so on her own on MP #3 to end the 3:12 contest.

It’s Cristian’s first match lost in 2026 after having held match point. She’s *won* under three such circumstances, though.

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Katie Boulter for the save!! (And the postscript.)


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A couple of scenes (both about crows) from my favorite Attenborough documentary (The Life of Birds) that I still reference all the time…




It’s not just the incredible ability to imitate other singers, though. (I think I’ve said this here before, but still.) Ariana Grande was a good comedic actress when she was a teenager, and is always a great host/performer on SNL. She has wonderful comedic timing and usually outperforms the regulars in the sketches. If she wasn’t a singer, she probably could have gone the route of being a successful comic actor.

Considering how someone like Reba McEntire has carved out an entire second career (in sitcoms) that has nothing to do with singing, Grande could likely *still* add that sort of chapter (though in movies, probably) to her career if she wants.

WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.18- When in Rome…


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*OLDEST WINS OVER WORLD #1*
37y,110d – Serena Williams d. Halep (2019 AO 4r)
36y,276d – Venus Williams d. Kerber (2017 Miami QF)
36y,120d – Martina Navratilova d. Seles (1993 Paris Indoors F)
36y,95d – Billie Jean King d. Navratilova (1980 Houston F)
36y,28d – Sorana Cirstea d. Sabalenka (2026 Rome 3r)

*LOW-RANKED PLAYER TO DEFEAT SABALENKA AS #1*
#164 – 2025 Berlin SF – Marketa Vondrousova (W)
#38 – 2025 Dubai 3rd Rd. – Clara Tauson
#32 – 2026 Madrid QF – Hailey Baptiste
#27 – 2026 Rome 3rd Rd. – SORANA CIRSTEA
#26 – 2025 Doha 2nd Rd. – Ekaterina Alexandrova
#24 – 2025 Stuttgart F – Alona Ostapenko (W)

*2026 – ITF TITLES*
3 – Kayla Day, USA
3 – Alicia Dudeney, GBR
3 – Katarina Kuzmova, SVK
3 – Celine Naef, SUI
3 – Noma Noha Akugue, GER
3 – Ekaterina Tupitsyna, RUS
3 – Akasha Urhobo, USA
3 – Hanne Vandewinkel, BEL
3 – Wang Xiyu, CHN

WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.18- When in Rome…

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When you see clips of people celebrating in Hungary after corrupt Orban is gone, realize that Trump, Vance and Rubio did everything they could to keep those celebrations from happening so Putin’s puppet could remain in power.

— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) May 10, 2026 at 8:10 AM


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So Texas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee can redraw districts without a referendum and that stands, but when Virginia lets voters decide directly at the ballot box, it gets overturned?

— Juliana Stratton (@julianastratton.bsky.social) May 8, 2026 at 12:48 PM


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The first thing I said upon reading this was, “Yeah, because why say that something is ‘wonderful’ when you can just say it’s ‘plusgood,’ or that something is ‘spectacular’ when it’s easier to simply call it ‘doubleplusgood.'” So I was glad to see that someone else saw it just as clearly…


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Watching a really old episode of ER.

Unconscious sick kid comes in.

DR 1: looks like measles.

DR 2: have you ever seen measles?

DR 1: no. Who sees measles?

The mother says she gave her son no vaccines.

Dramatic music.
Shocked look on the DRs faces.

Man.
Old episode…

— Joanne Freeman (@jbf1755.bsky.social) May 6, 2026 at 8:46 PM

The Pitt has a scene with an unvaccinated measles kid. Moms googling shit. Dad‘s like listen to the docs. Noah Wilie is pissed.

— rationalpear.bsky.social (@rationalpear.bsky.social) May 6, 2026 at 8:54 PM



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All for now.

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