Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Chan Hao-ching on Wednesday crashed out of the second round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, while world No. 5 Karolina Pliskova lost her cool over a line call and bashed a hole in the umpire’s chair.
World No. 50 Hsieh fell to a 6-0, 6-4 defeat to Johanna Konta in the second round of the women’s singles as the British world No. 22 improved her career record over the Kaohsiung-born 32-year-old to 3-2.
Konta saved both break points she faced and converted six of 11 to advance to a third-round match against Latvian fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko.
Konta’s post-match interview was then interrupted by former men’s world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who also advanced to the third round by defeating Georgian qualifier Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-4, 6-2.
Konta was discussing her culinary abilities when she was interrupted by a passing Djokovic.
“Can I experience your cooking one day?” Djokovic asked.
“To be fair it’s my parents and my boyfriend who say it’s good, so they are a bit biased, but I’ll bring stuff in,” Konta replied.
“Please, at Wimbledon,” the Serbian said.
“I need to know what you’re allergic to or don’t like,” Konta replied.
“Anything that is gluten free, dairy free or sugar free,” Djokovic said.
“Oh, fuck off,” Konta replied, before adding: “OK, I’ll make it work.”
Pliskova lost her cool after suffering a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat by Maria Sakkari in the second round of the women’s singles.
Pliskova had argued heatedly with umpire Marta Mrozinska after her smash was called out when serving at 30-30 and 5-5 in the final set, and her Greek opponent won the game before serving out the match.
The Czech exchanged a brief word with Sakkari at the net before approaching Mrozinska with an outstretched hand, then withdrew it and repeatedly smashed the chair with her racket.
Her twin sister, Kristyna, criticized Mrozinska on social media.
“The worst i have ever seen @wta and i hope this lady Marta Mrozinska will never ever judge any match of me or Karolina again #blacklistforever,” the 26-year-old wrote on Twitter.
Earlier, top seed Simona Halep produced a ruthless display to see off Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-0.
The Romanian was forced to save four break points in her opening service game, but went on to claim 12 consecutive games to avenge her Indian Wells loss to Osaka in March.
“I just tried to build my points, to build a little bit of space and open the court, and tried to make winners,” Halep said. “It’s tough to make winners on this court for me, but it’s good when I can build the point. I just want to play like today.”
Halep next meets Madison Keys of the US, who clinched a 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/0) victory over Croatian qualifier Donna Vekic.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Chan and Yang Zhaoxuan of China fell to a 6-2, 6-4 defeat to Czech second seeds Andrea Sestini Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova in 67 minutes.
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