Francesca Schiavone qualifies for the Tory Pan Pacific semi-final
Francesca Schiavone downed her Estonian tennis foe, Kaia Kanepi in a three-setter clash on Thursday to make her way into the semi-final round of the Toray Pan Pacific Women’s Open 2010 in Tokyo. The final match score was 7-5, 4-6, 7-5.
The fifth seed Italian went ahead 6-5 during the third set on a double-fault by Kaia. She claimed victory with a strong serve to the corner that Kaia failed to return.
Francesca, as a result of this victory will next meet the winner of today’s quarterfinal match between Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva on Friday.
Schiavone, according to recent news, will also contest in the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth during the month of January next year. The world number eight will team up with Potito Starace in the Italian side in the eight-nation championship.
As a result, she will register her name as the sixth Grand Slam winner to contest in the 2011 Hopman Cup along with Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Justine Henin as well as Lleyton Hewitt.
Francesca became the first tennis contender from her country Italy, when she claimed a Grand Slam trophy after getting the better of Samantha Stosur from Australia in a total of three sets at the French Open tennis tournament in Roland Garros back in 2009.
The final match score was 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Organisers also announced that Alicia Molik will team up with Hewitt in the Australian side for the January 1-8 competition.
The teams that are announced so far includes Serena Williams and John Isner from America, Justine Henin and Steve Darcis from Belgium, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic from Serbia, Gael Monfils and Kristina Mladenovic from France, Andrey Golubev and Yaroslava
Shvedova from Kazakhstan, Francesca Schiavone and Potito Starace from Italy and Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik from Australia, with one further side to complete the field.
In other action, Victoria Azarenka from Belarus got the better of her American tennis foe, Coco Vandeweghe in a two-setter clash to set up a semi-final encounter with the victor of the match between top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska. The
final match score was 6-2, 6-1.
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