Flavia Pennetta tumbles over Sloane Stephens to reach round three – Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2012
Local star, Flavia Pennetta, triumphed over the American qualifier, Sloane Stephens, in straight sets at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia 2012 on Wednesday. She nudged up a 6-2, 6-3 success against the world number 92 to advance into the third round at this
WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Five event taking place in Rome, Italy.
The home favourite, Pennetta sought 16 break opportunities and capitalised on six of them to carve out the victory in almost one and a half hour. Battling each other for the second time, the Italian not only extended her lead in the head-to-head series by
2-0 against the 19-year-old but also powered into the pre-quarters round.
Pennetta stormed into this red clay court tournament and dominated in the opening set. After the American teenager held her serve in the first game, the 30-year-old unleashed flurry of groundstrokes and went on a five-game rampage to go 5-1 up. The Italian
then plucked her serve once more and clinched the opener with a 6-2 score line.
The 21st ranked Italian carried her momentum into the follow-up set and earned the desiderated break in the opening game to take the initial lead. She squandered her edge in the very next game but put her nose ahead once more after breaking Stephens
serve in the fifth game. Despite exchanging another serve break, Pennetta cashed in fourth break chance in the last game and bagged the set with a 6-3 win.
All in all, the Swiss resident clobbered a slightly lower first serve share of 60 per cent as opposed to her rival’s 61 per cent but impressively jolted down 22 out of 30 points on it. She also committed fewer unforced errors and ended the match with 66
points.
Next up for the Italian is the Czech star, Petra Cetkovska, who shocked third seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in a three set nail-biter to set-up this duel.
The top seed, Victoria Azarenka, also stole the show later that day. She joggled up a 6-1, 6-2 success against the Israeli number one, Shahar Peer, in less than an hour. However, she sustained a shoulder injury afterwards and pulled out from the tournament.
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