Andrea Petkovic outshines Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia
12th seeded German, Andrea Petkovic cruised through the contest against the 30th ranked Russian, Maria Kirilenko in the opening round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday afternoon. World number 15
Petkovic took one hour and forty eight minutes to complete her straight sets victory at 7-5, 6-1, to move on to the second round of the $2,050,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The crowd at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy, witnessed an interesting contest between two of the craftiest payers in women’s tennis. The German had to work hard in the opening set to take her opponent down but faced limited resistance
in the second set, racing to victory in an assertive manner. The in-form Petkovic registered her 24th victory of the running WTA season at Rome and moved one step further in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. It was a hard-fought victory for the German
but it depicted that she is getting her rhythm right.
“Maria is obviously a tough first round opponent. She changes the rhythm so well,” Petkovic commented in her post match reviews, “Also, I hadn’t played outdoors since Miami. Stuttgart is indoors and the two matches I played in
Madrid were indoors because it was raining, so I needed time to get used to the conditions. I lost my first two or three service games because I was confused with the wind, but then I got back on track and was fine. In the end it was a solid match.”
Petkovic had a cautious start to the game and the Russian competitor took full advantage of it, breaking into lead early. The aggressive Russian took a commanding position in the opener, reaching 3-1 and crafted another break point
at 4-1. However, the amazing German took hold of the game from there onwards, saving the break point and stinging two consecutive serve breaks to come right back in the game. Three break points were registered by Kirilenko, while Petkovic came from behind
and belted four break points to bag the first set at 7-5.
The second set all belonged to Petkovic, whose dominance prevailed from the very first game. She reeled off 12 out of 14 first serve points and cracked two straight serve breaks outplay Kirilenko. The 14th seed dropped
just one game and raced to victory at 6-1 to qualify for the second round at Rome. She will be taking on the Slovenian qualifier, Polona Hercog in the next stage of the competition. Hercog was successful against Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania in straight sets,
6-1, 7-5, in the opening round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
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