This content was published 5 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.

Petra Kvitova and Novak Djokovic eased through their opening matches on Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, dropping just five games between them to advance to the third round.

The momentum was with Kvitova from the outset of her clash against Yulia Putintseva. With her serve firing and her groundstrokes proving too powerful for the diminutive Kazakh, it took just 20 minutes for the Czech player to secure a bagel first set and she continued in the same ruthless fashion in the second, allowing her opponent just one game as she cruised to a 6-0 6-1 victory.

“For me playing her is always pretty tough. I played against Yulia already in Indian Wells in a three-setter. It was a really tough one. I really expected the same because I know she’s playing well on the clay. But, yeah, it was a good one from my side,” said Kvitova.

The No. 2 seed will now face qualifier Maria Sakkari, who upset No. 14 seed Anett Kontaveit 6-3 6-2 in her second round match earlier in the day, in the second Court Centrale night match.

Djokovic was equally as dominant in his encounter with rising star Denis Shapovalov, spending just 66 minutes on court in the 6-1 6-3 rout.

The four-time Italian Open champion was most impressive on serve, recording a first serve percentage of 80% and winning 88% of his first serve points, as he made light work of the 20-year-old Canadian.

“I thought I was from back of the court very solid, not giving Denis time to swing. He has a big swing. He can play really with a lot of spin and also a lot of speed and power from back of the court. I took away that time from him,” explained Djokovic.

“First set he obviously made a lot of unforced errors. Second set he started playing better and was a closer set. But I thought I had opportunities from the very beginning of his service games. I served very well. I think that was probably the best shot I’ve had.”

Philipp Kohlschreiber, who took out home hope Marco Cecchinato, the No. 16 seed, in his second round match, will be Djokovic’s third round opponent later on Grandstand.