Italian Open 2017: Wednesday Rome Masters Tennis Results and Updated Schedule

Rafael Nadal is through to Round 3 of the Italian Open after his opponent, Nicolas Almagro, retired early on in their match on Wednesday.

The fourth seed surged into a 3-0 lead early in the match before his compatriot suffered what looked to be a nasty knee injury. Almagro immediately retired, giving Nadal a safe passage into the last 16, where he will play either Jack Sock or Jiri Vesely.

Also through in the men’s draw is Kei Nishikori, who was a winner in straight sets against David Ferrer. In the women’s bracket, second seed Karolina Pliskova coasted past Lauren Davis into the third round. 

Stanislas Wawrinka, Milos Raonic and Angelique Kerber will all take to the court in Rome later in the day. Here are the results so far from Italy and a recap of the day's action.

Men's Draw	Result
Women's Draw
(4) Rafael Nadal bt. Nicolas Almagro	3-0 (Ret)
(7) Kei Nishikori bt. David Ferrer	7-5, 6-2
Juan Martin del Potro bt. Kyle Edmund	7-5, 6-4
(3) Stan Wawrinka vs. Benoit Paire	TBC
(5) Milos Raonic vs. Tommy Haas	TBC
(8) Dominic Thiem vs. Pablo Cuevas	TBC
(13) Jack Sock vs. Jiri Vesely	TBC
(15) Pablo Carreno vs. Roberto Bautista-Agut	TBC
Viktor Troicki vs. (16) Alexander Zverev	TBC
Jan-Lennard Struff vs. Sam Querrey	TBC
(2) Karolina Pliskova bt. Lauren Davis	6-1, 6-1
(6) Simona Halep bt. Laura Siegemund	6-4, 6-4
(8) Elina Svitolina bt. Alize Cornet	6-4, 7-6 (11)
(12) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bt. Anastasija Sevastova	7-6 (4), 6-2
(15) Kiki Bertens bt. CiCi Bellis	6-4, 6-0
Daria Gavriolva bt. Caroline Garcia	7-5, 3-6, 6-3
Mona Barthel bt. Wang Qiang	6-3, 6-4
Julia Gorges bt. Jelena Jankovic	2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1
(1) Angelique Kerber vs. Anett Kontaveit	TBC
(3) Garbine Muguruza vs. Jelena Ostapenko	TBC
(4) Dominika Cibulkova vs. Ekaterina Makarova	TBC
(9) Venus Williams vs. Lesia Tsurenko	TBC
(14) Barbora Strycova vs. Timea Bacsinszky	TBC

Wednesday Recap

Based on his outstanding recent form on clay, those with a ticket for Wednesday's play at the Rome Masters would have been excited to see Nadal in action. However, his match was over quickly after the injury to Almagro.

As noted by Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times, it was pretty clear early on that Almagro was not going to be able to continue:

Per Tennis TV, Nadal was on hand to help his compatriot off the court:

"

He is a great champion, but @RafaelNadal is also a great sport too....#ibi17 pic.twitter.com/NErvQkb2N2

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 17, 2017"

It meant Nadal essentially had an afternoon off, although that was far from the case for a string of other top players early in the day, as they sought to keep their tournament chances alive in some punishing heat in Rome.

Nishikori was one, although he made relatively light work of Ferrer, who is regarded as a specialist on this surface. The Japanese edged a tight opener 7-5 before taking over in the second set, winning it 6-2.

"I felt pretty good," said Nishikori, who withdrew from last week’s Madrid Open with a wrist problem, per the ATP website. "It was a little bit different condition-wise from last week and here, so I had to make some adjustments. In the match there were many ups and downs, especially in the first set, but I think overall I played a pretty good match."

Michael Steele/Getty Images

Pliskova, meanwhile, turned in one of the standout showings of the day, dropping just two games against Davis.

As we can see courtesy of the WTA Twitter feed, she was in imperious form:

Joining her in the third round is sixth seed Simona Halep, as the Romanian overcame Laura Siegemund in a competitive match. It was a similar story for eighth seed Elina Svitolina, who had to dig deep to eventually shake off Alize Cornet.