Roberta Vinci battled past Timea Babos into the quarterfinal – Budapest Grand Prix 2011
Top seeded Italian Roberta Vinci was pushed to three sets by the local wild card entrant, Timea Babos at the POLI-FARBE Grand Prix, a clay court tournament held in Budapest, Hungary. She hit back from a set down to win against
18-year-old Hungarian with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory and eventually secured a last eight spot on Thursday.
Currently at her career best rank at 25 in the Sony Ericson WTA Premier rankings, Vinci took two hours and eighteen minutes to overpower the wild card entrant, ranked 206 places below her, on their first meeting. She has booked
a quarter-final spot and is eyeing for the $220,000 prize money of this event.
The Hungarian teenager failed to save the only breakpoint faced but converted both breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to make quick in-roads. She clobbered a lower first serve share of 56 percent as compared to Vinci’s 67
percent but registered a superb 87 percent win on it. Babos eventually sealed the set by winning six games to four.
28-year-old Italian re-structured herself in the second set and after exchanging an early break, she held onto her serve till the scores were levelled at 5-5. Vinci then converted another breakpoint chance in the end to bag the
equaliser with a 7-5 win. She saved seven out of eight breakpoints faced and converted two out of seven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
The higher ranked Vinci kept her class in the final set as she saved all six breakpoints conceded to keep her entire serves. After the scores were tied at 2-2, the Italian cashed in both breakpoint chances to reel off last four
games in a row and clinch the decider with a 6-2 win. She clobbered a lower first serve share but earned an amazing 71 percent win on it.
The 5’4” Italian has had a great on-going season so far. She was out of form in the start of the season but showed her colours in April when she won title at Barcelona’s clay courts. Vinci kept her form on grass as well as she
won the title at s-Hertogenbosch last month. She then made a third round showing at Wimbledon where she lost to the eventual Champion Petra Kvitova before entering this WTA Premier International event.
Vinci will next face Slovak Zuzana Kucova who trashed Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko with a breadstick in sixty-five minutes to reach this spot. The Slovak upset sixth seeded French Mathilde Johansson in straight sets in her opening
round match and is currently at her top form in this event. This duel is a must watch since Kucova has the potential to stun the highest rank player of the tournament.
Tags: