Crowd favourite Francesca Schiavone moves into the quarterfinal at Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Second seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone made an epic come back from a set down to win the 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 nail biter match at her home soil. She earned the victory against Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to advance into the quarter-finals
of the 2011 Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Thursday.
World number five Schiavone rallied past a former world number five Hantuchova in two hours and forty minutes in their seventh meeting on tour. After this victory at Foro Italico, the Italian extended her lead in the head-to-head
series against the Slovak by 5-2. The pair last met each other at this clay court tournament last year where the Italian was victorious in three sets.
Ranked 33rd in the WTA Premier rankings, Hantuchova – who won the title at Pattaya, made quick in-roads in the opener. She unleashed a flurry of ground strokes to reel off first four games in a row. The Slovak saved
five out of six breakpoints faced and converted three out of seven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the set with a convincing 6-3 score line.
The 30-year-old Italian got back on track in the second set as she raised her level of game. She played her best tennis as she saved both the breakpoints faced and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage
to clinch the set with an assuring 6-2 score line. Schiavone registered an impressive 74 percent win on her higher first serve share.
She carried her winning ways into the decider and held her opening serve plausibly. Although Schiavone lost her serve twice, she broke Hantuchova’s serve three times to seal the set by winning seven games to five. She clobbered
less double faults and earned an amazing 70 percent win on her higher first serve share.
"I'm proud of the support," said the beaming Schiavone. "The fans are with you, they applaud and want you to win. It's certainly not a burden for me. The boos and applause form part of the game."
Schiavone showed her true colours at Melbourne Grand Slam earlier in the season when she made a quarter-final berth there. However, since then her form has dipped as she exited in the early round from all the events she participated
in. The Italian finally managed to reach her second quarter-final this year after triumphing over the Slovak.
The crowd favourite will next face sixth seeded Australian Samantha Stosur who dumped the Slovene qualifier Polona Hercog in straight sets to reach this spot.
"It'll be a big match here in Italy," Stosur said of the match with Schiavone. "It'll be the first time we've played on clay since the French Open - we've played on hardcourts a couple times since then. Obviously I'm expecting
a tough one."
Stosur leads the Italian in their head-to-head series by 5-3 and it would be a worthwhile duel to watch.
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