This content was published 6 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Madison Keys, Angelique Kerber and Johanna Konta were just three of the winners on an action-packed day at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Keys secured a hard-fought victory over qualifier Donna Vekic, dropping just two points in two tiebreaks to set up a last 16 meeting with world No. 1 Simona Halep.

The American US Open finalist had defeated the Croatian 6-3 6-2 in their only previous meeting at 2016 Roland Garros but was pushed considerably harder on Wednesday at the Foro Italico, emerging victorious 76(2) 76(0) after one hour 53 minutes.

Angelique Kerber was another player who had a battle on her hands to reach the last 16, the German taking two hours 37 minutes to overcome Irina Camelia-Begu 3-6 7-5 7-5 in her first match back since retiring with a thigh injury in Stuttgart.

Kerber’s next opponent will be Maria Sakkari, who caused a shock when she defeated No. 6 seed Karolina Pliskova 3-6 6-3 7-5.  Their match was marred by a controversial line call which was called out yet Pliskova firmly believed to be in which handed the Greek player a break point at 5-5 in the final set. The Czech subsequently dumped a forehand into the net to hand her opponent the break and the world No. 42 duly served out the match to secure her first victory over a Top 5 player.

Johanna Konta set up a third round meeting with Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko after overcoming Hsieh Su-Wei 6-0 6-4 in 65 minutes. It was sweet revenge for the Brit who had fallen to Hsieh in the first round at Roland Garros last year and ensures she now leads their head-to-head 3-2.

No. 14 seed Daria Kasatkina advanced to face defending champion Elina Svitlina in the next round thanks to a 6-2 6-3 victory over qualifier Danielle Collins, while Anett Kontaveit defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 75 75 to set up a third round clash against 1999 champion Venus Williams, who she beat in Madrid last week.