Interesting first round WTA battle at Olympics – Tennis News
Flavia Pennetta vs. Sorana Cirstea
World number 21, Flavia Pennetta, is set to head on the grass courts of Wimbledon for her first round match of the Olympic Championships against the 39th ranked Romanian, Sorana Cirstea.
It might sound a one-sided encounter favouring the 30-year-old experience Italian but it’s not the case. The 22-year-old Romanian is immensely enriched with some eye-startling stroke making. She can easily deceive the competitors
with her ability to manoeuvre the ball from inside the baseline and play some perfectly paced drop shots.
If we have a look at the head-to-head series, the Italian leads it by 2-1. Recently, she ousted the Romanian in an epic two-setter at the first round of the ASB Classic at Auckland. Cirstea lost the first set 4-6 and couldn’t ride
her luck in the second set tie-breaker.
The previous two matches have been three-setters, so one can easily say that the two performers will put up another show of their brilliance in the hunt to drive one step close for their maiden Olympic gold medal.
Cirstea will look to level the head-to-head scores and register a win against the 21st ranked Italian after a gap of almost four years. The last time she won was way back in 2008 during the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament,
contested at New Haven. So, it is her chance to revive the glory and built some consistency in her winning form.
The Romanian was seen in the semi-finals of Bank of the West Classic at Stanford where she lost to the top seed defending champion, Serena Williams. So she is in a good form, whilst Pennetta is yet to officially play a match since
her first round surprise at the Wimbledon Championships. So, there is a hope for the Romanian and she has the ability to convert the hope into reality.
Hopefully, it will turn out to be a thrilling encounter when experience of Pennetta will lock horns with the guile of the booming Romanian starlet. The opening round matches will commence from the eve of Saturday at the All England
Lawn Tennis Club in London; same place where Wimbledon Championships took place.
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