Garbine Muguruza Blanco stuns Flavia Pennetta in round three – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Spanish tennis sensation, Garbine Muguruza Blanco, stunned everyone by dumping the 30-years-old Italian doubles specialist, Flavia Pennetta, in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open on Sunday. She is taking full advantage of
the wildcard entry allotted to her and registered another upset in an epic three-setter. Final scores were 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(6).
A gruelling battle of two hours and 18 minutes was enjoyed by the sizeable crowd at the hard courts of Miami. Both players fought extremely well until the end, with the momentum of the game oscillating between the two valiant contestants.
An excellent start to the match witnessed an exchange of breakpoints, followed up with a serve hold and another breakpoint by the Spaniard. Blanco, just 18-years-old, took a lead of 4-1 in no time and further crushed the Italian
veteran by gobbling up another breakthrough in the eighth game to take a set lead.
Despite the first set battering, the Italian tennis ace dominated the second set and showed her class by winning three breakpoints and allowing no opportunity whatsoever to her opponent to take charge of the proceedings. Blanco
was terribly thrashed in all departments of the game and the Italian levelled the set scores at one-all.
The stage was set for one last clash before the end. A cautious start witnessed a serve hold at both ends before the veteran took charge and broke serve to take a lead of 2-1. She consolidated her break with a serve hold and continued
to dominate the proceedings for the good part of the final set.
She was almost on the verge of winning the set; just a serve hold was required but a double-fault came her way that destroyed all the momentum and more importantly gifted a critical breakthrough to her opponent that tied the scores
at 5-5.
A swap of breakpoints enforced a tie-breaker round into play. A miserable display from the Italian professional forced her double mini-break down early that led to her downfall. She is the second successive major victim of the
Spanish teen after the Russian starlet, Vera Zvonareva, bowed down to her in the previous round.
Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland will be the next opponent for the Spanish sensation.
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