Roberta Vinci battles past Irina Camelia Begu to clinch title win – Budapest Grand Prix 2011
Top seed Roberta Vinci of Italy rallied to win against seventh seed Irina Camelia Begu of Romania in a three setter nail biter final at the POLI-FARBE Grand Prix, an International level WTA Premier event held on the clay courts
in Budapest, Hungary. She registered a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over the 20-year-old Romanian to triumph the title on Sunday.
The highest ranked player of the tournament, Vinci required a third set to down the Romanian in two hours and eight minutes on their first meeting. She eventually took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Begu and shelved
her third title of the season.
28-year-old Italian confidently entered the opening set and broke Begu’s serve three times to bag the opener with a 6-4 win. Despite losing her serve twice and clobbering a lower first serve share of 58 percent as compared to Romanian’s
69 percent, she converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the set comfortably.
Vinci, however, ran out of steam in the second set as she couldn’t hold on to her single serve.
The Romanian raised the level of her game in the second set as she broke the Italian’s serve thrice to equalise the match with a breadstick. She committed more double faults and a lower first serve share but registered a spectacular
82 percent win on it. To spice it further, Begu saved two out of three breakpoints conceded and converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
The Taranto native, Vinci got back on track in the final set as she saved three out of four breakpoints with her amazing defensive skills and earned an impressive 71 percent win on her slightly lower first serve percentage. She
then converted two out of three breakpoint chances to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to four.
"I began well, but in the second set I felt tired and the heat made things more difficult. I didn't play aggressively enough," Vinci said. "I was still tired in the third but at 4-2 down I pushed myself and told myself, 'Come on,
come on.' I started to play stronger on my forehand and managed to turn things around."
The Italian won her sixth career title and is currently at her top form since she made a semi-final showing at Pattaya and triumphed titles at Barcelona, s-Hertogenbosch previously.
Tags: