Latest WTA Italian Open Rome News
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Italian Open Rome
WTA Rome 2021 takes place from 9-16 May 2021. Watch and bet on Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis live and get WTA Italian Open Rome live stream access with livetennis.com.
WTA Rome Live Streaming
Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis is live from the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy from 9-16 May 2021, with play starting around 11am local/10am BST. Bookmaker bet365 are offering customers the opportunity to watch a live stream of the matches alongside in-play betting.
Watch and bet on WTA tennis live at bet365 > live streaming > tennis (geo-restrictions apply; funded account required or to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours to qualify)
How to watch & bet on WTA tennis
1. Visit the bet365 website
2. Sign into your account or register for a new one
3. Select Live Streaming
4. Select ‘Tennis’ from the ‘All Sports’ drop down menu
5. Enjoy a live stream & in-play betting for WTA Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis, live from Rome from 9-16 May 2021
PLEASE NOTE: You must have a funded account or have placed a bet in the last 24 hours in order to watch tennis; geo-restrictions apply.
WTA Rome 2021 Tournament Schedule
Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2020
| Date – Time | Event Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday 9 May 10am BST | Men’s R1 matches | Foro Italico |
| Monday 10 May 10am BST | Men’s & women’s R1 matches | Foro Italico |
| Tuesday 11 May 10am BST | Men’s R2 & women’s R1 & R2 matches | Foro Italico |
| Wednesday 12 May 10am BST | Men’s & women’s R2 matches | Foro Italico |
| Thursday 13 May 10am BST | Men’s & women’s R16 matches | Foro Italico |
| Friday 14 May 10am BST | Men’s & women’s QF matches | Foro Italico |
| Saturday 15 May 11am BST | Men’s & women’s SF matches | Foro Italico |
| Sunday 16 May 12pm BST | Men’s & women’s finals | Foro Italico |
When is the 2021 Italian Open?
The Internazionali BNL d’Italia returns to its usual calendar slot in 2021 and will take place from 9-16 May – following immediately on from the Mutua Madrid Open, and two weeks before the French Open.
Elina Svitolina is a two-time champion at the WTA Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Credit Image: © Giampiero Sposito/Pacific Press via ZUMA Wire)
WTA Italian Open Players 2021
The 2021 Internazionali BNL d’Italia entry list has not yet been released, but as a WTA 1000 event in its own right as well as a key battleground in the run-up to the French Open, we can be sure that the tournament will once again boast a fantastic women’s field.
Simona Halep
Halep had been knocking on the door at the Foro Italico for some time, reaching the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semifinals twice and finishing runner-up to Elina Svitolina twice, so it was not too much of a surprise when the Romanian finally claimed the title in 2020, beating her fellow French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the semifinals before defeating defending champion Karolina Pliskova in the final.
World no. 2 Halep won the French Open on her third appearance in the final in 2018, then delivered a sensational performance to add Wimbledon to her title haul in 2019. In addition to winning Rome in 2020, she went 23-3, claiming titles in Dubai and Prague and reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Karolina Pliskova
The big-serving Czech hasn’t always been thought of as a clay-courter, but Pliskova has had steadily more impressive results on that surface, reaching the semifinals of the French Open in 2017, winning Stuttgart and putting together a 9-match winning streak on clay in 2018 and in 2019, capturing the Internazionali BNL d’Italia title when she defeated Johanna Konta in the final.
Pliskova made it back to the final in Rome in 2020, but was forced to retire in the final due to injury, handing Halep the title. The Czech still added Brisbane to her title haul that season and will be looking to make the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final for the third straight year in 2021.
Elina Svitolina
Ukraine’s Svitolina has flourished in Rome, winning back-to-back Italian Open titles in 2017 and 2018 when she defeated Halep in both finals.
Svitolina’s 10-match winning streak at the Foro Italico was snapped by Victoria Azarenka in 2019, and she was unable to make it past 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Internazionali BNL d’Italia – not too surprising, given it was her first tournament in six months.
Svitolina won titles in Monterrey and Strasbourg in 2020 and made the quarterfinals of the French Open.
Kiki Bertens
Bertens claimed one of the biggest titles of the clay-court season in 2019 when she won the Mutua Madrid Open, and was a French Open semifinalist in 2016. The powerful Dutch player has begun to win big titles on hard courts as well as clay, claiming titles in Cincinnati, Seoul and St Petersburg, but remains a formidable threat on the dirt. She made the semifinals in Rome in 2017 and 2019.
Bertens won St Petersburg in February 2020, but was unable to find that momentum again when the season resumed seven months later. She will be keen to improve on her Rome result – a second-round exit to dangerous veteran Polona Hercog – when she returns to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in 2021.
Garbine Muguruza
French Open champion in 2016 and at Wimbledon in 2017, beating a Williams sister in each final, Spain’s Garbine Muguruza is a formidable player on all surfaces – and after a couple of years of lacklustre results, she is now reunited with Conchita Martinez and on the upswing, reaching the final of the Australian Open in January 2019.
Muguruza made the semifinals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia for the third time in 2020, defeating Coco Gauff, Johanna Konta, Sloane Stephens and Victoria Azarenka before falling to Halep. Could she go one better and make the final in 2021?
Ashleigh Barty
Australia’s Barty managed to retain the world no. 1 ranking despite only playing 14 matches in 2020 and contesting no tournaments after February due to the global health crisis and travel restrictions which were particularly problematic for Australian players.
Consequently Barty was not able to defend her French Open title, which passed to Iga Swiatek, but the Australian should be hungrier than ever for success when she returns to the WTA Tour in 2021 – and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia could be an opportunity for her to record her best results yet.
WTA Rome Tournament Information
| WTA Italian Open | Internazionali BNL d’Italia |
|---|---|
| Dates | 9-16 May 2021 |
| Location | Rome, Italy |
| Venue | Foro Italico |
| Surface | Outdoor red clay |
| Category | ATP Masters 1000/WTA 1000 |
| Draw size | 56 singles/24 doubles |
| First played | 2002 |
| Most titles | Men: Rafael Nadal (9)
Women: Chris Evert (5) |
| Prize money | ATP: €5,791,280 WTA: US$3,452,538 |
| Reigning champions | Men’s singles: Novak Djokovic
Women’s singles: Simona Halep Men’s doubles: Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos Women’s doubles: Su-Wei Hsieh/Barbora Strycova |
Who are the best-performing female players at the Italian Open?
| Player | Years played | Title | Finals | 2020 result | Win-loss |
| Serena Williams | 16 | 4 | – | Did not play | 44-8 |
| Elina Svitolina | 7 | 2 | – | QF (lost to Marketa Vondrousova) | 13-5 |
| Venus Williams | 16 | 1 | 1 | R1 (lost to Victoria Azarenka) | 34-15 |
| Karolina Pliskova | 6 | 1 | 1 | Runner-up (lost to Simona Halep) | 11-5 |
| Simona Halep | 9 | 1 | 2 | Champion (d. Karolina Pliskova) | 20-7 |
| Garbine Muguruza | 7 | – | – | SF (lost to Simona Halep) | 14-7 |
| Kiki Bertens | 6 | – | – | R2 (lost to Polona Hercog) | 7-6 |
About the Italian Open
The Italian Open, now known as the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, has a long and prestigious history as a women’s tournament as much as a men’s.
What is now known as WTA Rome was first played in 1930 in Milan, when Spain’s Lili Alvarez – now known as a feminist author and journalist as well as a tennis champion – won the inaugural edition. In 1935, the tournament moved to Rome, finding its home at the Mussolini-built Foro Italico, now one of tennis’s most recognizable venues thanks to its 1930s architecture and gladiatorial statues.
The Italian Open has also been played in Turin, Perugia and Taranto, but it has always returned to Rome before too long and has been played at the Foro Italico every year since 1987. Sadly for the home crowds, no Italian woman has won the title in that time – the last homegrown women’s champion was Raffaella Reggi in 1985, although Sara Errani did reach the final in 2014, losing to Serena Williams.
What is now known as the Internazionali BNL d’Italia remains one of the highlights of the European clay-court season and the WTA calendar in general. One of five ‘Premier-5’-category tournaments (now known as WTA 1000s), which offer 900 ranking points to the winner and prize money of $2 million, the Italian Open is the last big tournament ahead of the French Open. So, in addition to the desire to win such a prestigious tournament for its own sake, players also battle particularly fiercely at the Foro Italico to establish themselves as contenders for Roland Garros.
Since 1987, Steffi Graf (1987), Monica Seles (1990), Serena Williams (2002, 2013) and Maria Sharapova (2012) have won the Italian Open and French Open in the same year.
Many of tennis’s most iconic female champions have triumphed at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, including Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters. Monica Seles and Martina Hingis won multiple titles, while Gabriela Sabatini won four titles in five years between 1988 and 1992 and Conchita Martinez won four in a row from 1993 to 1996. No other player has so far tied Chris Evert’s record of five titles in Rome, however; the American won in 1974-5, and then claimed three straight from 1980-2, reaching the final twice more to boot.
In recent times it’s Serena Williams who has won the most Internazionali BNL d’Italia titles, although it was not for 11 years after she first triumphed in 2002 beating sister Venus in the final that she would win a second in Rome. Williams’s haul currently stands at four, most recently winning an all-American final against Madison Keys in 2016 – could she tie or even overtake Evert’s record before she’s done?
After two runner-up finishes to Elina Svitolina, Simona Halep broke through to become the Internazionali BNL d’Italia champion in 2020, defeating Karolina Pliskova in the final of an unusual autumnal edition.
WTA Rome Ranking Points
| Round | Points |
|---|---|
| Champion | 900 |
| Runner-up | 585 |
| Semifinalist | 350 |
| Quarterfinal | 190 |
| R16 | 105 |
| R32 | 60 |
| R64 | 1 |
Italian Open Champions
Here is a complete list of players who have won singles titles at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia since the tournament’s first Open Era edition in 1969.
| Year | Men’s Champion | Men’s Runner-up | Women’s Champion | Women’s Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | John Newcombe | Tony Roche | Julie Heldman | Kerry Melville |
| 1970 | Ilie Nastase | Jan Kodes | Billie Jean King | Julie Heldman |
| 1971 | Rod Laver (2) | Jan Kodes | Virginia Wade | Helga Niessen Masthoff |
| 1972 | Manuel Orantes | Jan Kodes | Linda Tuero | Olga Morozova |
| 1973 | Ilie Nastase (2) | Manuel Orantes | Evonne Goolagong | Chris Evert |
| 1974 | Bjorn Borg | Ilie Nastase | Chris Evert | Martina Navratilova |
| 1975 | Raul Ramirez | Manuel Orantes | Chris Evert (2) | Martina Navratilova |
| 1976 | Adriano Pannatta | Guillermo Vilas | Mima Jausovec | Lesley Hunt |
| 1977 | Vitus Gerulaitis | Antonio Zugarelli | Janet Newberry | Renata Tomanova |
| 1978 | Bjorn Borg (2) | Adriano Panatta | Regina Marsikova | Virginia Ruzici |
| 1979 | Vitus Gerulaitis (2) | Guillermo Vilas | Tracy Austin | Sylvia Hanika |
| 1980 | Guillermo Vilas | Yannick Noah | Chris Evert (3) | Virginia Ruzici |
| 1981 | Jose Luis Clerc | Victor Pecci | Chris Evert (4) | Virginia Ruzici |
| 1982 | Andres Gomez | Eliot Teltscher | Chris Evert (5) | Hana Mandlikova |
| 1983 | Jimmy Arias | Jose Higueras | Andrea Temesvari | Bonnie Gadusek |
| 1984 | Andres Gomez (2) | Aaron Krickstein | Manuela Maleeva | Chris Evert |
| 1985 | Yannick Noah | Miroslav Mecir | Raffaella Reggi | Vicki Nelson-Dunbar |
| 1986 | Ivan Lendl | Emilio Sanchez | Not played | Not played |
| 1987 | Mats Wilander | Martin Jaite | Steffi Graf | Gabriela Sabatini |
| 1988 | Ivan Lendl (2) | Guillermo Perez Roldan | Gabriela Sabatini | Helen Kelesi |
| 1989 | Alberto Mancini | Andre Agassi | Gabriela Sabatini (2) | Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario |
| 1990 | Thomas Muster | Andrei Chesnokov | Monica Seles | Martina Navratilova |
| 1991 | Emilio Sanchez | Alberto Mancini | Gabriela Sabatini (3) | Monica Seles |
| 1992 | Jim Courier | Carlos Costa | Gabriela Sabatini (4) | Monica Seles (2) |
| 1993 | Jim Courier (2) | Goran Ivanisevic | Conchita Martinez | Gabriela Sabatini (2) |
| 1994 | Pete Sampras | Boris Becker | Conchita Martinez (2) | Martina Navratilova |
| 1995 | Thomas Muster (2) | Sergi Bruguera | Conchita Martinez (3) | Arantxa Sanchez Vicario |
| 1996 | Thomas Muster (3) | Richard Krajicek | Conchita Martinez (4) | Martina Hingis |
| 1997 | Alex Corretja | Marcelo Rios | Mary Pierce | Conchita Martinez |
| 1998 | Marcelo Rios | Alberto Costa | Martina Hingis | Venus Williams |
| 1999 | Gustavo Kuerten | Patrick Rafter | Venus Williams | Mary Pierce |
| 2000 | Magnus Norman | Gustavo Kuerten | Monica Seles (2) | Amelie Mauresmo |
| 2001 | Juan Carlos Ferrero | Gustavo Kuerten | Jelena Dokic | Amelie Mauresmo |
| 2002 | Andre Agassi | Tommy Haas | Serena Williams | Justine Henin |
| 2003 | Felix Mantilla | Roger Federer | Kim Clijsters | Amelie Mauresmo |
| 2004 | Carlos Moya | David Nalbandian | Amelie Mauresmo | Jennifer Capriati |
| 2005 | Rafael Nadal | Guillermo Coria | Amelie Mauresmo (2) | Patty Schnyder |
| 2006 | Rafael Nadal (2) | Roger Federer | Martina Hingis (2) | Dinara Safina |
| 2007 | Rafael Nadal (3) | Fernando Gonzalez | Jelena Jankovic | Svetlana Kuznetsova |
| 2008 | Novak Djokovic | Stan Wawrinka | Jelena Jankovic (2) | Alize Cornet |
| 2009 | Rafael Nadal (4) | Novak Djokovic | Dinara Safina | Svetlana Kuznetsova |
| 2010 | Rafael Nadal (5) | David Ferrer | Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez | Jelena Jankovic |
| 2011 | Novak Djokovic (2) | Rafael Nadal | Maria Sharapova | Samantha Stosur |
| 2012 | Rafael Nadal (6) | Novak Djokovic | Maria Sharapova (2) | Li Na |
| 2013 | Rafael Nadal (7) | Roger Federer | Serena Williams (2) | Victoria Azarenka |
| 2014 | Novak Djokovic (3) | Rafael Nadal | Serena Williams (3) | Sara Errani |
| 2015 | Novak Djokovic (4) | Roger Federer | Maria Sharapova (3) | Carla Suarez Navarro |
| 2016 | Andy Murray | Novak Djokovic | Serena Williams (4) | Madison Keys |
| 2017 | Alexander Zverev | Novak Djokovic | Elina Svitolina | Simona Halep |
| 2018 | Rafael Nadal (8) | Alexander Zverev | Elina Svitolina (2) | Simona Halep (2) |
| 2019 | Rafael Nadal (9) | Novak Djokovic | Karolina Pliskova | Johanna Konta |
| 2020 | Novak Djokovic (5) | Diego Schwartzman | Simona Halep | Karolina Pliskova |
WTA Italian Open tennis is live from Rome, Italy from 9-16 May, with play starting around 11am local/10am BST. Bookmaker bet365 are offering customers the opportunity to watch a live stream of the matches alongside in-play betting.
Watch and bet on WTA tennis live at bet365 > live streaming > tennis (geo-restrictions apply; funded account required or to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours to qualify)
How to watch & bet on WTA tennis
1. Visit the bet365 website
2. Sign into your account or register for a new one
3. Select Live Streaming
4. Select ‘Tennis’ from the ‘All Sports’ drop down menu
5. Enjoy a live stream & in-play betting for WTA Italian Open tennis, live from Rome from 9-16 May 2021
PLEASE NOTE: You must have a funded account or have placed a bet in the last 24 hours in order to watch tennis; geo-restrictions apply.
