Alberta Brianti hits back at Alize Cornet in the opening round - Abierto Mexicano Telcel 2012
Italian tennis star, Alberta Brianti, bounced back at the French contender, Alize Cornet, in a three-set nail-biter at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel 2012 on Monday. She joggled up a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the world number 112 to book a spot in the second round at this WTA International tournament taking place in Acapulco, Mexico.
The Italian veteran sought the right path after the opening set and required two hours and 17-minutes to outmuscle the former world number 11 in their second outing. The contestants previously met each other at the St. Raphael ITF event seven years ago and after earning this victory, Brianti maintained her winning record against the French.
Cornet improved to a 2-0 score after drawing the first blood in the opening set, followed by a series of serve breaks from both ends. The two competitors traded a total of six serve breaks to take the scores to 5-3 but Cornet sustained her vital lead of two games to keep the upper hand in the match.
The French contestant served out of the opener comprehensively at 6-3 but a dramatic turnaround was witnessed in the following set. Brianti dropped her serve twice but came up with three cracking serve breaks to rally past her opponent in style. She won 12 out of 23 first serve points to claim the second set at 6-3, levelling the match scores at one set apiece.
Intense tennis continued in the decisive, with both competitors exchanging lusty blows to take the better of one another. Brianti hammered two successive serve breaks but the determined French kept hitting back at her, breaking the Italian serve twice to curtail the lead to 3-4. Cornet’s efforts went in vain when Brianti delivered to more serve breaks to close out the match at 6-3.
Overall, Brianti ruled throughout the match, as she nudged up a better first serve share and impressively marked 35 out of 69 points on it.
The eighth seed Italian will take on the winner of the match between Michaella Krajicek of Netherlands and the unseeded Romanian, Alexandra Cadantu, in her next encounter of the tournament.
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