Roberta Vinci battles past Bethanie Mattek-Sands into the quarterfinals – Open GDF Suez 2012
Seventh seed, Roberta Vinci, regained her form after losing the second set badly; she overcame Bethanie Mattek-Sands of USA in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the round of 16 at the Open GDF Suez in Paris, France on Thursday.
The Italian needed an hour and 46 minutes to clinch victory.
Vinci took the lead straightaway, breaking Mattek-Sands in the very first game to go ahead 1-0. However, Mattek-Sands did not take too long to break back and levelled the score at 1-1. Vinci broke the American serve again
in the fifth game and held her serve in the next game to take a 4-2 lead. The Italian earned the double break of serve in the seventh game but failed to serve out the set in the next game, taking the score to 5-3. Mattek-Sands continued to perform poorly on
her serve and lost her service game once again in the ninth game, dropping the set 3-6.
After losing the first set, Mattek-Sands looked a completely different player, as she dominated the proceedings throughout the second set. The American claimed first five games, breaking her opponent three times in a row
and going ahead up 5-0. The 26-year-old could not complete a bagel set, as she lost her serve in the sixth game. However, Mattek-Sands did not allow Vinci to come back, breaking the Italian again in the seventh game and grabbing the set 6-1.
Vinci and Mattek-Sands failed to break each other in the first four games of the decisive set, squaring off the score at 2-2. Vinci raised the level of her game after that, as she broke the American in the fifth game and
won her next service game to grab a 4-2 lead. Mattek-Sands found herself in trouble once again in the seventh game; she hardly succeeded to hold her serve to take the score to 3-4. However, the right-handed was unable to repeat the effort in the ninth game,
losing her serve and the final set 3-6.
The 5ft 4in tall, Vinci, delivered three aces and four double faults in the match. The Taranto, Italy resident hit 56 percent of the first serves and converted the same percentage of them into points. The 28-year-old managed
to save seven of the 13 break points she faced in the match.
Vinci is slated to face Marion Bartoli of France in the quarterfinals. The second seed, who is a winner of seven career titles, prevailed over Petra Martic of Croatia in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 in the second round.
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