{"id":573388,"date":"2026-05-08T18:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573388\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:35:09","slug":"italian-open-iga-swiatek-naomi-osaka-progress-in-rome-while-swiateks-new-coach-francisco-roig-tears-achilles-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/573388\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Open: Iga Swiatek, Naomi Osaka progress in Rome while Swiatek&#8217;s new coach Francisco Roig tears Achilles | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iga Swiatek is through to the last 32 of the Italian Open, winning a third-set decider against unseeded American Caty McNally 6-1 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 to progress.<\/p>\n<p>At 6-1 3-1 ahead, the three-time Rome champion Swiatek appeared to be cruising through her opener, but she squandered three break points for a 4-1 lead with cheap unforced errors, and from that point on the match turned into a battle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For sure, not an easy first match,&#8221; Swiatek said afterwards. &#8220;The conditions were kind of heavy. The ball was flying slow. So we had many long rallies, many moments where you could create a lot on the court.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>McNally &#8211; the only player to win a set from Swiatek at Wimbledon last year &#8211; has never beaten the Polish star at pro level, but she did have a memorable comeback victory over Swiatek on clay in the 2018 Roland Garros junior event.<\/p>\n<p>As McNally began to impose her touch on the match on Friday, she threatened a similar turnaround.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set and reached 30-30 both times, only to lapse into errors, getting broken on backhands that sailed well over the baseline on each occasion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Honestly, I want to watch this game and see if there&#8217;s something that I did wrong,&#8221; Swiatek said when asked about her attempts to serve out the win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure even what I did. I don&#8217;t exactly remember what happened in that game. But I will watch the match. I&#8217;ll watch it and I&#8217;ll see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/skysports-swiatek-tennis_7242730.jpg\"   alt=\"Poland's Iga Swiatek \" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Swiatek will next face Emma Navarro\u00a0or Elisabetta Cocciaretto for a place in the last 16 in Rome\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the third set, it nearly unraveled again for Swiatek. She broke McNally for 3-1, but missed a chance to extend the lead to 4-1 with a double fault, then handed the break straight back with a string of errors.<\/p>\n<p>But this time, Swiatek regained her focus. As McNally held a point to level at 4-4, Swiatek swatted away a return to deny her. Two dialed-in clean winners followed, and then the break for 5-3. There would be no repeat of her second-set travails.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was really happy with the first set, then I made some mistakes,&#8221; said Swaitek. &#8220;Also Caty, I felt like she was playing one more ball in, really grinding in defense. I needed to be patient.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m happy at the end of the match I was solid and I used the right balls to attack, but was also patient enough to stay in the rally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek will next face either No 28 seed Emma Navarro or home hope Elisabetta Cocciaretto.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek&#8217;s new head coach tears Achilles<\/p>\n<p>It was supposed to be a fun game between Swiatek and her new coach on a special court in Rome to help promote the Italian Open.<\/p>\n<p>It ended with a torn Achilles&#8217; tendon for Francisco Roig, who was recently hired by Swiatek, the six-time Grand Slam champion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He did a split step and tore his Achilles. It happened on Saturday. On Tuesday he had surgery already in Warsaw. We kind of took care of him,&#8221; Swiatek said after a three-set victory over McNally.<\/p>\n<p>Roig, who formerly coached Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu, was hired by Swiatek after she parted ways with Wim Fissette.<\/p>\n<p>Osaka battles past Lys to progress in Rome<\/p>\n<p>No 15 seed Naomi Osaka was made to work hard in her Rome opener, but ultimately found a way to fend off resilient Eva Lys in three sets 6-4 4-6 6-3 in two hours and eight minutes of play.<\/p>\n<p>        Twitter<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"twitter\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Japanese star made a fine start, earning an early break and opening a 5-2 lead, but then failed to convert a set point on Lys&#8217; serve in the eighth game and also didn&#8217;t manage to serve out for the opener in the ninth game.<\/p>\n<p>However, the four-time Grand Slam champion didn&#8217;t allow the German to fully get back in the set after breaking the world No 80 in the 10th game.<\/p>\n<p>After winning the first set, Osaka took the opening two games of the second set, but then lost the next four games. And while the former world No 1 managed to level the set to four games all, Lys earned another break for a 5-4 lead before closing out the second set on her serve in the following game.<\/p>\n<p>The third set didn&#8217;t lack drama either &#8211; after twice blowing a break, Osaka broke Lys again in the eighth game to open a 5-3 lead. Serving for the match, the four-time Grand Slam champion managed to seal the win and avoid further drama.<\/p>\n<p>In the Rome third round, Osaka will face No 19 seed Diana Shnaider.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the ATP and WTA Tours, live on Sky Sports or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nowtv.com\/watch-sky-sports-online?DCMP=ilc_skysports_nc_articlelink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stream with NOW<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11677\/12572660\/download-the-sky-sports-app-premier-league-goals-f1-race-control-and-more-at-your-fingertips\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky Sports app<\/a>, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/13131189\/sky-sports-plus-launches-in-august-to-give-more-choice-to-fans-via-live-streams-app-and-new-channel\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Find out more here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek is through to the last 32 of the Italian Open, winning a third-set decider against unseeded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-573388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}