Awesome American success as Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys rally in Rome Open wins, joined by Danielle Collins and Hailey Baptiste

It was the day of American success at the Rome Open with a multitude of the top stars finding their way through including Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys at the Foro Italico, two that are in the top five seeds.

Pegula increased a perfect record against Ashlyn Krueger on Thursday afternoon sealing it 6-4, 6-2. Before later on in the evening Keys saw off Varvara Gracheva.

Albeit it was a bit more of an arduous task with Keys winning through 7-6(4), 6-1 having to come from 5-2 down and a couple of set points in the opening to claim it before romping through the second after two hours of play.

In the Pegula clash, it is the bigger name American who has seen more success as she has won five times in the past two years against Krueger maintaining a perfect record.

She will now face No.25 seed Elise Mertens in the third round on Sunday. The Belgian won their first three career meetings but Pegula beat Mertens for the first time at this year's Australian Open. Given she barely played last year at this juncture, it is very much all positives right now for the American as she navigates hopefully bouncing back after losing to Moyuka Uchijima last week in Madrid.

Keys after averting that early scare will now face off against Peyton Stearns who was one of the leading stars earlier in the day. She saw off Anna Kalinskaya and has form in beating Keys winning via retirement in Toronto last year. She has majorly come on since ironically losing Tom Hill back to Maria Sakkari who also has been in form.

Other American winners this afternoon included Danielle Collins who sets up again a tie with Iga Swiatek. She saw off Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-3. While Hailey Baptiste upset 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. So certainly the day of the Americans.

Match Statistics Krueger vs. Pegula