Irina-Camelia Begu survives Estrella Cabeza-Candela to reach the semis – XXV Italiacom Open 2012
World number 73, Irina-Camelia Begu, bounced back from a set-down to shatter the 162nd ranked Spanish competitor, Estrella Cabeza-Candela, in the battle for the semi-final spot of the XXV Italiacom Open on the eve of
Friday. She lost the opening set 5-7 to the Spanish qualifier but won the following two 6-4, 6-4 to confirm her place in the last four.
Previously, the 21-year-old Romanian had played two matches with the Spanish qualifier and she had won both of them. So, the psychological advantage was in her favour and she was the better player on paper. However, the initial
onslaught from the Spanish contestant defied all the odds for a moment.
The opening set witnessed a swap of breakthroughs on two different occurrences but both in the first half of the set. Afterwards, the two players settled down at the clay courts of Palermo, Italy. They capitalized on their serves
and almost enforced the tie-breaker round but out of nowhere the Spanish starlet who saved a breakpoint in the 11th game won the breakthrough in the following game to sneak the first set in her favour.
A similar start to the second set witnessed a trade of breakthroughs on two different stages. However, the Romanian starlet didn’t waste more time in pouncing on her rival and grabbed a breakthrough in the ninth game that gave
her a chance to wrap up the second set proceedings in the following game with a serve hold. She did exactly that, losing just one point in the heated atmosphere that featured 86°F temperatures.
The final set commenced poorly for the Spanish qualifier Candela who lost the opening serve game that forced her to see a trail of 0-2 at the start. She tested her rival on two occurrences but couldn’t convert the breakpoints to
her favour on both the occurrences. However, she did well to save a double breakpoint in the fifth game that helped her contain the trail to just two games.
A trade of breakthroughs kept the scores in the favour of the Romanian who made no mistake in the 10th game of the final set to round off the match in her favour. A thumping serve hold to love finished the contest and
confirmed the classic semi-final draw between the in-form 73rd ranked Romanian, Begu, and the top seed Italian warrior, Sara Errani.
Errani is expected to win the battle but Begu can surprise her without a doubt.
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