Anabel Medina Garrigues advances into the main draw of the Rome Masters
Qualifying top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues from Spain trashed Italian wild card Karin Knapp in straight sets on Sunday. She registered a 6-4, 6-2 win over the 23-year-old Italian to advance into the main draw of the 2011 Internazionali
BNL d’Italia, an ATP Masters 1000 event held in Rome.
World number 42 Garrigues dominated throughout the match against Knapp, ranked 323 places below her. She took one hour and forty-one minutes at Foro Italico to book a spot in the main draw of this WTA Premier 5 event.
The former top twenty Spaniard is in great shape this season as she made a semi-final berth at Acapulco and won the title at Estoril. She triumphed over Croat Mirjana Lucic in a three set thriller in the first round of qualifier
here.
28-year-old seed outshined the Italian completely in the first set and held her opening serve plausibly. She produced a higher first serve share of 72 percent as compared to Knapp’s 55 percent and earned a convincing 50 percent
win on it. Despite losing three serves, Garrigues broke the Italian’s serve four times to clinch the set with a 6-4 win.
She raised her level of game in the final set and produced a much better first serve share of 83 percent as opposed to Knapp’s 66 percent. The Spaniard registered an impressive 68 percent win on it and saved two out of three breakpoints
faced. She converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to two.
Up next for Garrigues is Swiss Patty Schnyder.
Second seeded Chinese Jie Zheng faced bad luck later in the day when was ousted by qualifying ninth seed Australian Anastasia Rodionova in troublesome three sets. The Aussie saved four out of ten breakpoints faced and converted
eight out of thirteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match with a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Qualifying third seed Slovene Polona Hercog will also be joining Garrigues in the main draw. She trashed Spanish Nuria Llagostera Vives by converting six out of nine breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the match with
a breadstick.
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