American Taylor Townsend (168 WTA) made a surprise in the second round of the “WTA 1000” tournament in Rome, defeating her compatriot Jessica Pegula (3 WTA) with a score of 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Jessica Pegula lost to Taylor Townsend at WTA Rome

Pegula started well and took a 2-0 lead, but Townsend won six straight games to take the set.

The second set belonged to the third favorite of the tournament, so the decider will be at the discretion of the player, who is only ranked 168th in the WTA.

The game lasted one hour and 56 minutes.

In the third round, Taylor Townsend will meet China’s Xia Wang (75 WTA), who defeated Irina Bega in two sets 6-4, 7-5.

WTA Rome takes place from May 9 to 20 on the clay in the Foro Italico complex. His total prize money is $3,572,618 and is in the “WTA 1000” category. Iga Svyatek became the champion of the last two competitions.

Know:

• The Italian competition, founded in 1930, has been won three times by a Romanian athlete: Ilie Nestase, 1970 and 1973 editions, and Simona Halep, 2020.

• They have also been in the finals: Ilie Nestase (1974, losing to Bjorn Borg), Virginia Ruzici (1978, 1980, 1981) and Simona Halep (2017, 2018, losing both times to Elina Svitolina).