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USA’s Bernarda Pera and Russia’s Anna Blinkova have been named the top two seeds in the women’s qualifying draw at the 2020 Internazionali BNL d’Italia while former Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani also features in the 30-strong field.

Pera, who is playing in Rome just two spots off her career high ranking of number 59, has showed good form on clay in the past, reaching the semi-finals in Prague, Lausanne and Jurmala in 2019. The left-handed American awaits the winner of the match between home hope Martina Trevisan and Japan’s Misaki Doi which is scheduled fourth on Court Pietrangeli.

World No.62 Blinkova has also recorded good results on clay and will be hoping she can reproduce the level of play which saw her reach the third round as a qualifier at Roland Garros last year when she faces either Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele or Canada’s 18-year-old rising star Leylah Fernandez in the final round of qualifying.

Third seed Lauren Davis will start her qualifying campaign against Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan while Arantxa Rus, the No.4 seed, takes on Russia’s Liudmila Samsanova. Both matches will be played on Court 3. Davis’ compatriot Christina McHale will face Katarzyna Kawa on Grandstand Arena in the first match of the day before Zarina Diyas takes to the same court to play Anna Kalinskaya.

Former world No.5 Errani, who reached the Italian Open final in 2014, begins her quest for a main draw place on Court Pietrangeli against Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu who has also shown previous good form at the Foro Italico, recording a semi-final finish in 2016.

Other Italians in action on Saturday include Martina Giuseppe against Anna-Lena Friedsam, wildcard Jessica Pieri versus Aliona Bolsova, Giulia Gatto-Monticone against last year’s Roland Garros doubles champion Timea Babos and wildcard Melania Delai versus Nao Hibino. All four of those matches will take place on Court 4.

Qualifying gets underway on Saturday with the women’s main draw matches starting on Monday.