Post by Admin on May 10, 2021 22:47:09 GMT
Watch the Match Highlights from Sara Sorribes Tormo vs. Camila Giorgi at the 2021 Internazionali BNL d'Italia.
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka are scheduled for a mouth-watering quarter-final clash at the Italian Open in what could be their first match-up since the Australian Open semis.
The draw for the clay-court event in Rome was released on Sunday, with No.2 seed Osaka and No.8 seed Williams on the same side.
If both progress to the quarter-finals they will face each other for a chance to play in the semi-finals.
It would be the first time Osaka and Williams play each other since the semi-finals of the Australian Open in February, where Osaka got the better of her idol.
Williams later left her post-match press conference in tears, sparking speculation that she'd played her last grand slam at Melbourne Park.
Osaka also famously beat Williams in the US Open final in 2018 - a match that was overshadowed by Williams' ugly clash with chair umpire Carlos Ramos.
Williams, a four-time champion in Rome in 2002, 2013, 2014 and 2016, will also be playing for the first time since the Australian Open.
Osaka's best result at the event was a quarter-final berth in 2019.
The World No.2 has never won a tour-level event on the red dirt while at the French Open, which starts on May 30, she is yet to make it past the third round.
The four-time grand slam champion was dumped out of the Madrid Open in the second round last week, having taken almost a month off following her quarter-final exit in Miami.
"I'm just not that comfortable on it (clay) still, and I'm not sure if it's because I need to play longer on it or if I just haven't grown up on it," Osaka told a press conference in Rome on Sunday.
Osaka has played just two matches on clay since the 2019 French Open having skipped last year's grand slam because of injury.
"Mentally it's a bit harder because you have to structure the points differently," she continued.