Lucie Safarova downs Kimiko Date-Krumm to advance at Internazionali BNL D’Italia
Czech Lucie Safarova dumped the former top five player, Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm, in straight sets at 2011 Internazionali BNL D’Italia, a clay court tournament held in Rome, Italy. She registered a 7-5, 6-2 victory over the 40-year-old Japanese to advance into the second round on Tuesday.
World number 32 Safarova trashed world number 59 Date-Krumm in just eighty-five minutes in their first meeting ever. After this victory at Foro Italico, the Czech has taken a 1-0 lead in her head-to-head against the Japanese.
Safarova has a 15-11 win loss record this season so far and is in good shape. She displayed awe-inspiring skills at Kuala Lumpur where she reached the final. She previously made a quarter-final berth at Madrid before entering this WTA Premier 5 event.
24-year-old made a winning start of the match and held her opening serve plausibly. She then held her entire serve with her blistering forehands until the scores were level at 5-5. Safarova then earned the coveted break in the eleventh game and held her serve in the proceeding game to clinch the set with a 7-5 win. She faced zero breakpoint and converted the only breakpoint opportunity to her advantage.
The youngster kept momentum rolling into the final set and broke Date-Krumm’s serve in the very first game. Despite losing her serve twice and clobbering two double faults, Safarova broke the Japanese serve again for the fourth time in the seventh game to eventually seal the seat with a convincing 6-2 score line. She saved two breakpoints and converted four out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch easily.
The Japanese has won only three out of her last ten matches and after losing this match she extended her losing streak to four matches. She produced a higher first serve share in the match and clobbered less errors and double faults but didn’t capitalise on it.
Safarova will next face fifth seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic who received a bye into the second round for being a top eight player of the tournament. The Serb is in great form this season as she made semi-final berths at Dubai, Doha and Charleston and reached final at Monterrey.
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