Madison Keys has been good all year but after missing out on a seed in Rome and drawing #5 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the second round there was certainly potential for an early exit. Instead Keys swept Kvitova 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday and now has no more seeded players in her path to the semifinals after a couple of other upsets. Keys next opponent will be Timea Babos of Hungary after Babos upset #12 Venus Williams 6(5)-7, 7-5, 6-4 on Wednesday. Also pulling an upset but lacking the good draw from here is Christina McHale. McHale needed to battle back after dropping a first-set tiebreaker to #13 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia but pulled off the upset 6(3)-7, 6-4, 6-1. The reward for McHale is a matchup with #1 Serena Williams on Thursday, and of course Williams has had a day off.

In women’s doubles action Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears defeated the Chinese team of Chen Liang and Yafan Wang 6-2, 6-3 and now will face #8 Julia Goerges of Germany and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Another American, Bethanie Mattek-Sands begins doubles play as the #2 seed with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic as they take on Andreja Klepac and Katrina Srebotnik of Slovenia. The Slovenians knocked out the Williams sisters in the first round.

Over in men’s doubles #5 Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan just barely found separation against Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey as the matchup was eventually decided in a match tiebreak that ended 13-11 to the Bryan brothers. Johnson/Querrey had taken set one 6-4 but lost the second 6-3. Also advancing was Jack Sock who won two tiebreakers with Vasek Pospisil of Canada as the #8 seeds defeated Treat Huey of the Philippines and Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6(4), 7-6(2). Both men’s doubles teams will be off on Thursday before playing in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Previous Italian Open Coverage:
Preview
Sunday Update
Monday Update
Tuesday Update