Flavia Pennetta shocks Maria Kirilenko to reach round two – Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2012
Local star, Flavia Pennetta, devastated the 16th seed, Maria Kirilenko, with a breadstick at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2012, a red clay court tournament taking place in Rome, Italy. She jolted down a 6-1, 7-6(2) success against the 25-year-old
to advance into the round of 32 at Foro Italico in Rome, Italy.
The crowd favourite, Pennetta needed almost two hours to upset Kirilenko in their right battle against each other. After earning the limelight, Pennetta not only extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 6-2 against the world number 16 but also inched
closer towards her 10th career title at this red clay court tournament.
Pennetta thundered into this WTA Premier Five event and ruled in the opening set. After Kirilenko plucked her serve in the opening game, the Italian star unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off the following six games in a row, eventually sealing the
opener with a breadstick.
Ranked 21st in the WTA Premier Rankings, Pennetta lost her track in the second set and after gifting away her serve twice, she went 1-5 down. However, the Italian made a fitting reply after that and equalised the scores at 5-5 after wiping out
the proceeding four games successively. Despite losing her serve again, Pennetta grabbed her break back in the last game and took the set to the tie-breaker. She edged past her rival in it and clinched the set with a 7-6(2) score line.
Overall, the 30-year-old fired six aces and produced almost an equal first serve share of 57 per cent. She amazingly availed 24 out of 43 points on it and cashed in half of the 12 break chances to earn the fame.
Next in queue for Pennetta is the American qualifier, Sloane Stephens, who battled past her fellow qualifier, Anna Chakvetadze, in three sets to set-up this duel.
The former world number one, Venus Williams, recreated her magic later that day. She nudged up a 6-3, 6-4 victory against the Romanian number one, Simona Halep, in one hour and 35 minutes. She sought 13 break opportunities and capitalised on five of them
to progress.
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