Francesca Schiavone cruises into the third round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
World number five, Francesca Schiavone of Italy had no real trouble in disposing off the 92nd ranked Christina McHale of the United States in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday. The second
seed needed just 72 minutes to wrap up a straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-1, to qualify for the third round of the $2,050,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court tournament.
The home favourite faced limited resistance from McHale and cruised through the contest with authority. It was the 13th victory for Schiavone in the running WTA season and a much needed one as well. The Italian exhibited
the true class of a top ranked player and gave away no chance to the American opponent to get her impact over the game. She broke McHale four out of eight times, while denied her opponent of break points on two occasions.
The American competitor appeared totally out of form in the competition and couldn’t withstand the fury of her strong opponent. McHale got to the second round of at Rome after a close competition with Shuai Peng, beating her in
the third set and her ordinary continued against the second seeded Italian as well. She coughed a number of unforced errors, including four costly double faults in the contest to let Schiavone take the game away.
Although Schiavone’s serve lacked something to be desired, she remained unbroken in the entire matchup. The Italian delivered merely 51 per cent serve on target but secured 33 of 45 total serve points on it. She faced break points
on two occasions but successfully defended it both times to keep the upper hand in the contest.
The Italian veteran had an aggressive start to the opening set and wasted no time in making her impact over the game. Despite of a below par first serve of 48 per cent, Schiavone bagged 28 out of 51 total points in the set. A single
serve break proved sufficient for the Italian to clinch the first set at 6-3 and get one up in the contest.
Italian domination became even stronger in the following set as McHale slumped further. The American could hold serve in just one game, with Schiavone breaking her opponent three times to get an impassable lead of 5-1. The local
Italian crowd erupted in sheer joy as a fiery forehand winner from Schiavone marked an end to the contest at 6-1, sending her to the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.
Schiavone will face the winner of the second round clash between the Italian wildcard, Romina Oprandi and the Slovakian, Daniela Hantuchova.
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