Alberta Brianti gives Silvia Albano a breadstick and a bagel in the first round – XXIV SNAI Open 2011
Longing for a spot in the finals, Alberta Brianti of Italy kept her torrid pace with a 6-1, 6-0 destruction of her compatriot Silvia Albano in the first round of XXIV SNAI Open on Monday afternoon.
It was Brianti’s first ever meeting with her compatriot, now leading their official head-to-head 1-0, here at Palermo, Italy.
Both women have enjoyed top form recently though Brianti won the match, as she did not waste up any opportunity during the match. The 16-year-old Albano appeared out of from against someone who was double her age, losing the match
in straight sets.
The Italian No.5 started confidently, whipping a couple of forehand winners down the line to make her existence felt. Serving for the opener, Albano survived a lot of nervous moments to hold serve while Brianti did not have any
problems finding her range on groundstrokes and looked the more quick-witted during the lengthy rallies.
Serving to level the first set at 1-all, Albano looked all-set to be cruising to 40-0, but from there the 16-year-old played some uncharacteristically awkward games, costing her the opener in a double quick time.
Britani, who had been recently crowned at the Fes tournament, was full of enthusiasm in winning her serve points. She won 19 of 24 first serve points while her opponent had a meagre 33 percent winning rate. Albano was bestowed
with five break chances in the match though she failed to convert three of them while Brianti converted 67 percent break points. The opening set turned out to be a breadstick win for Brianti who beat Albano reeling five straight games.
Analyzing Brianti’s plan of action, Albano rectified her imperfections and fought back by landing in a couple of winners. As far as judging the serve quality of both the women was concerned, it was held that Brianti had a clear
edge over her compatriot again.
The 31-year old had an admirable conversion rate of first serves into points as she got 77 percent in the second set while Albano hanged back with a meager 25 percent. Winning on serve gave her the dominance she needed to wrap
up the second set with a bagel win.
With this win, Brianti has improved her year-to-date win/loss mark to 19/17 matches and now moves on into the second round of the tournament for the third time in her career.
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