View Profile at the same stage. At last week's Mutua Madrid Open, Sabalenka edged Rybakina in three sets before falling to Swiatek in a 3-hour, 11-minute final thriller.
— Internazionali BNL d'Italia (@InteBNLdItalia) May 6, 2024
Last year, Rybakina and Swiatek met in the quarterfinals, with Swiatek retiring at 2-2 in the third set with a right thigh injury. The pair have met twice this year; Swiatek triumphed 7-6(8), 6-2 in the Doha final, and Rybakina came out on top in the Stuttgart semifinals 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Rybakina leads the overall head-to-head 5-3.
The Top 32 seeds all receive byes in the 96-player draw. Noteworthy first-round matches include Mirra Andreeva
Click here to view the full draw. Here's how the quarters of the draw break down.
First quarter
Swiatek, the champion in Rome in 2021 and 2022, will bid to become the sixth player in the Open Era to lift the trophy three times (following Chris Evert, Gabriela Sabatini, Conchita Martínez, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova). She will open against either Guadalajara finalist Caroline Dolehide
Swiatek is slated to face No.31 seed Sloane Stephens, who won her first red clay title in Rouen two weeks ago, in the third round. In the fourth round, she is projected to meet No.14 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova
View Profile , who upset her at the same stage of Miami in March. Potential quarterfinal opponents include Wimbledon champion and No.6 seed Marketa Vondrousova
Gauff, a semifinalist here in 2021, was the only member of the Top 4 who didn't hold her seed in Madrid. The US Open champion will bid to right that in Rome, opening against fellow 2004-born American Ashlyn Krueger
View Profile is slated to meet Gauff in the fourth round, though will have to navigate a fiendish section including fast-rising youngsters Andreeva and Diana Shnaider
No.7 seed Zheng Qinwen, Gauff's projected quarterfinal opponent, is bidding to win consecutive matches for the first time since February. The Australian Open runner-up will face either Shelby Rogers or wild card Lisa Pigato in the second round and is scheduled to meet No.29 seed Linda Noskova
View Profile in the third. Potential fourth-round opponents for Zheng or Noskova include Kostyuk, Osaka and No.10 seed Daria Kasatkina
View Profile is the No.5 seed, and Rybakina's projected quarterfinal opponent. Sakkari will have to navigate stern opposition to get there. She could face last year's runner-up, No.30 seed Anhelina Kalinina
In contrast to her success in Madrid, Sabalenka has advanced past the third round of Rome only once -- a semifinal run in 2022. Her bid to add to that will start against either Wang Yafan or a qualifier. No.32 seed Dayana Yastremska
View Profile , who leads their head-to-head 3-0, could await in the third round.
View Profile is projected to face Sabalenka in the fourth round. The Ukrainian will open against the winner of an intriguing stylistic contrast between Sara Errani
View Profile , the 2022 runner-up, is scheduled to meet Sabalenka in the quarterfinals. The Tunisian will start against either Italian No.2 Lucia Bronzetti
