Kalinskaya upsets Rybakina, Krejcikova advances in Madrid

A handful of Grand Slam champions were in action at the Mutua Madrid Open as second-round action wrapped up. After the seeds received first-round byes, there were mixed results for some Friday in their first matches:

Anna Kalinskaya

View Profile d. [7] Elena Rybakina

View Profile 7-5, 4-6, 6-2

For the second time in the past two months, Wimbledon champion Rybakina faced Kalinskaya after coming off a strenuous sequence of results. In Miami, Rybakina was fresh off winning the Indian Wells title and had to battle hard to keep her winning streak going 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

In earlier April, Rybakina deliver two wins for her country in Billie Jean King Cup action, before competing in Stuttgart, where a lower back injury forced her to retire in the quarterfinals. The No.62-ranked Kalinskaya has herself reached two WTA quarterfinals this year, in Austin and Charleston, and avenged the Miami loss in 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Round 2 highlights: Kalinskaya d. Rybakina | Martic d. Siegemund | Trevisan d. Bouchard

Kalinskaya used Rybakina's pace to her advantage. The result was the third Top 10 win of her career (following losses to Sloane Stephens at the 2019 US Open and Karolina Pliskova

View Profile at Miami 2022). She will next face No.27 seed Petra Martic

View Profile , who came through 7-6(6), 6-3 against qualifier Laura Siegemund

View Profile .

[11] Barbora Krejcikova

View Profile d. Danka Kovinic 6-3, 4-6, 6-0

This is only Krejcikova's third singles appearance in Madrid -- and remarkably, her first since falling in a 2018 qualifying match to Sachia Vickery and the 2021 first round to Paula Badosa

View Profile .

Kovinic came into the match on a six-match winning streak after winning last week's title at the strong Oeiras ITF W100. The Montenegrin's form was evident as she pushed Krejcikova with impressive counterpunching in the first two sets. The Czech had to come from an early break down to win the first and still couldn't put Kovinic away in the second.

But Krejcikova raised her game to cruise through a 6-0 decider, her third 6-0 set of 2023. She will next face either another former major winner in No.23 seed Bianca Andreescu

View Profile or China's Wang Xiyu.

Alycia Parks

View Profile d. [15] Victoria Azarenka

View Profile 6-2, 7-6(5)

Parks, the rising 22-year-old American ranked World No.54, earned her second Top 20 win of the year by overcoming former World No.1 Azarenka in 1 hour and 47 minutes of play.

Parks has now won her last four matches against Top 20 opponents, dating back to Ostrava last year where she defeated Karolina Pliskova

View Profile and Maria Sakkari

View Profile back to back. Parks also beat No.5 Caroline Garcia

View Profile to win her first WTA singles title on the indoor hard courts of Lyon earlier this year.

After Parks charged through the first set, two-time Madrid finalist Azarenka held firm in the second set despite taking a medical time-out at 3-2. Parks replied with clutch serves down the stretch, with three of her 13 aces coming in the decisive second-set tiebreak.

With her two wins this week, Parks has doubled her career total of clay-court main-draw wins at tour-level. The American's first-round victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova was her first career win over a Top 100 player on clay at any level.

Parks will face another Top 20 player when she meets last year's Roland Garros semifinalist Martina Trevisan

View Profile in the third round. No.18 seed Trevisan defeated former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 7-5 earlier on Friday.