Francesca Schiavone brushes aside Alexandra Dulgheru in opening round – New Haven Open 2011
World number eight, Francesca Schiavone of Italy, had no real difficulty in disposing off the 49th ranked Romanian opponent, Alexandra Dulgheru, in the opening round of New Haven Open at Yale, on Sunday afternoon.
Being played at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, the contest featured a great display of sheer dominance from Italy’s number one tennis player. Schiavone wound up victory at 6-1, 6-2, taking
just one hour and nineteen minutes of play to cleat the opening round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series event.
Seeded at number three in the tournament, the Italian proved far superior to the bleak Dulgheru in the contest and gave her absolutely no chance to have her impact over the game. The Romanian competitor managed to pocket merely
three games in the entire matchup before submitting the contest in a humiliating manner.
It the second time that Schiavone has beaten Dulgheru in a singles encounter, with a prior victory over the Romanian last year at Tokyo, defeating her 7-5, 6-3, in the round of 32 of the tournament. Her 29th victory
of the running WTA season extended her head-to-head lead against Dulgheru by 2-0 and books her a place in the second round draws of the Premier Series tournament.
The belligerent Italian nailed four out of six break points en route to victory, while denying her opponent from breaking her serve on four different occasions. Schiavone reeled off 25 out of 31 first serve points in the game and
the Romanian following her with just 12 points to finish the matchup on the losing end.
The third seed drew first blood in the second game and then raced away to a 3-0 lead early in the matchup. Her forehand cracked in a number of thudding winners in the opener and she collected 28 out of 45 total points being played
in the set. A second serve break from the Italian in the sixth game left her serving for the set and she closed out the opener at 6-1 to get one up in the game.
Schiavone continued with her demolition job in the second set as well, breaking her opponent in the very first game and then again in the fifth game to close out victory at 6-2. The third seeded Italian moved in to the second round
of the tournament to face the other Romanian competitor, Monica Niculescu, for a place in the quarter-finals.
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