Alberta Brianti crashes out to Silvia Soler-Espinosa in the opening round – BNP Paribas Open 2012
Italian rising star, Alberta Brianti, dumped herself out from the BNP Paribas Open 2012 on Thursday. She suffered a gruelling 3-6, 6-1, 6-7(4) defeat at the hand of the 24-year-old in the first round at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Mandatory
event held on the hard courts in California.
The world number 63 displayed dismal performance to lose for the first time in their third meeting against Soler-Espinosa. The Spaniard on the other hand not only advanced into the second round but also inched closer to bid for her maiden career title.
The World number 76, Soler-Espinosa high-spiritedly entered the Indian Wells Tennis Garden and drew the first blood in the fourth game to leap at 3-1. In spite of losing her serve in the very next game, she stayed focused and broke the Spaniard’s serve again
in the sixth game. She then held her remaining serves and pulled out the opener with a 6-3 win.
Brianti went berserk in the proceeding set and held her opening serve with poise. After the Spaniard held her serve in the second game, the 31-year-old unleashed flurry of angled shots to wind up the next five games in a row, eventually sealing the equaliser
with a breadstick.
The Italian lost her track again in the final set and lost her opening serve in the second game to go 2-0 down. Regardless of snatching her break back in the very next game and dragging the set to a tie-breaker, Brianti trailed in it and subsequently endured
a 6-7(4) loss.
As a result, Soler-Espinosa secured a place in the second round where the 21st seed, Roberta Vinci, awaits her.
Later that day, Romanian number one Simona Halep got the limelight after crushing the Chinese qualifier, Shuai Zhang, with double breadsticks. Halep lost her serve once but broke her opponent’s serve six times to manifest an assuring 6-1, 6-1 score line
in 61 minutes. The 20-year-old produced a better first serve share of 72 per cent as compared to Zhang’s 69 percent and amazingly marked 21 out of 34 points on it.
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