Karin Knapp stoops to Carla Suarez Navarro in the semi-final – Estoril Open 2012
Italian qualifier, Karin Knapp, couldn’t pass through the semi-final test of the Estoril Open against the Spanish tennis icon, Carla Suarez Navarro, and bowed down in an hour and 20 minutes. She lost the opening set with a tight
score but faced a bagel in the second half. Final scores were 6-4, 6-0.
It was the first clash between the two players. Both of them were in good run of form having won bulk of their recent encounters. Knapp was the inferior ranked player but her performance in the tournament made her the hot favourite
to win the contest. However, Spanish star didn’t come under the influence of recent show put forth by the Italian and stick to her natural game.
Serve holds at the start of the opening set were followed by an exchange of breakthroughs between the contenders that pushed the scores to 2-2. Both players capitalized on their respective serves in the following two games and
speed away to 3-3 in the first set.
Navarro won the crucial breakthrough in the seventh game; smashing two winners down the line and rounding off the second successful breakpoint with a delicately placed drop shot. She made sure that her opponent didn’t follow up
with a breakthrough in the following game and registered a lead of 5-3.
Knapp was again under the cosh in the ninth game but saved a couple of breakpoints before registering a very tight serve hold. She needed to break serve in the following game to take the set but couldn’t win a single point that
helped Spaniard to take the opening set lead.
The second set witnessed a complete battering from the Spaniard. She didn’t waste a single opportunity to pound on to the qualifier and won three breakpoints in a row; faced no problem at all on her serves and registered an embarrassing
bagel against the expectation of the crowd.
She won majority of the points on her first serve and never looked in any sort of trouble at all. On her triumph, she mentioned, "In the second set I think she was a little bit tired, and I started playing really well. I lost the
two finals I played before, but this is another place and another player, and I'll really try to enjoy this final. She has a great serve, but I have a good return game."
Talking about her fellow finalist, Kaia Kanepi, she stated, “Kaia has experience in finals and won a big tournament at the beginning of the season, so we will see."
The final will take place on Saturday.
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