Italian underdogs piling up upsets to reach the quarter-finals – US Open 2012
A couple of thrilling upsets were witnessed in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday afternoon, with two of the under-rated Italian contenders outmuscling the superior-ranked opponents to reach the Women’s Singles quarter-finals.
First up was this year’s Roland Garros French Open finalist, Sara Errani, who toppled the reigning world number six, Angelique Kerber, in straight sets, 7-6(5), 6-3, to book a berth in the round of eight. 10th ranked Errani has also been in form of life this season but she wasn’t expected to hunt down the German number one with such assertive score line. Kerber defeated the former world number one, Venus Williams, in the second round and was rated as favourite to better the Italian in Monday’s matchup.
"It was a very difficult match, mentally," Errani said afterwards. "I was so tired in the match because we had so many long points, but I'm very happy I'm in the quarterfinals in New York. The crowd was great and the court is amazing."
Kerber had won the most number of matches in the running WTA season (56 victories before her loss to Errani) but was outplayed by the thumping forehands of the Italian number one. Errani books a spot in her third Grand Slam quarter-final and is aiming for more upset results in the crunch matches coming later week.
The biggest shocker of the women’s draw came later that day when the reigning world number two, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, fell to the 19th ranked Italian, Roberta Vinci. The second seeded Pole could barely win five games in the entire matchup, settling with a humiliating score line of 1-6, 4-6, to finish her Grand Slam voyage at the Flushing Meadows Park.
Vinci was absolutely ballistic in the contest and launched a series of attacking manoeuvres right from the beginning to put the hot favourite contender under pressure. She belted 29 winners in total and broke the Polish serve five out of nine times to pull the stunner.
"I'm happy to play her - for sure an Italian goes to the semi-finals," Vinci said. "She's my best friend and I'm so happy she won against Angelique today. It has been an unbelievable week and unbelievable tournament for us here."
Errani and Vinci will be facing each other in the quarter-final of the US Open later this week. Both Italians are long-term doubles tennis partners and are well aware of each other’s game play. It will be really interesting to see which of the Italian contender rise tall to reach the semis of the coveted mega event.
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