Madison Keys and #1 Serena Williams both needed just two sets to reach the quarterfinals on Thursday. Keys needed a tiebreaker to take the first set from Timea Babos of Hungary but pulled away in the second for a 7-6(2), 6-3 win. Williams took a similar path in defeating fellow American Christina McHale, who had advanced to the third round all the way from qualifying. Williams won her match 7-6(7), 6-1 and now faces #9 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia on Friday evening. Keys will take on Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Friday afternoon. The two are on opposite sides of the bracket so they would not meet until the final if they keep winning.

In women’s doubles action Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears got their second win of the tournament when they beat #8 Julia Goerges of Germany and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3. They’ll play again on Friday when they face #1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India. The other American left in doubles, Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost her opener as the #2 seed with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 3-6, 4-6 to Andreja Klepac and Katrina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

In men’s doubles #5 Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will face #4 Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Bruno Soares of Brazil on Friday while #8 Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil of Canada face Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Marcel Granollers of Spain.

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