Roberta Vinci claims her second title at the Barcelona Ladies Open
Roberta Vinci of Italy beat Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday at the Barcelona Ladies Open final. The Italian pro secured a three set win to claim her second title at the tournament having won it earlier
in 2009. The 28-year-old Italian in her second final last year had a little trouble seeing off the top seeded compatriot Francesca Schiavone.
After this huge success, the 28-year-old has extended her win loss mark to 14-1 in Barcelona Singles matches. This is her fourth WTA title and second at the Barcelona in three years.
Vinci has further cause for celebration as she officially regains the world number 37 ranking from Austria’s Anastasija Sevastova. The 28-year-old Vinci was superb in her two prior attempts at the event, attaining the title in
2009 and approaching the title match again last year only to lose to the 30-year-old compatriot Francesca Schiavone with a double breadstick.
Slamming her serve and one-handed ground strokes with utter precision, she was certainly getting her wins without dropping a single set. World number 94 Virginie Razzano and Kazakhstan’s number 1 tennis player Yaroslava Shvedova
were among her victims. She then had to come back from a long fight against Laura Pous-Tio with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) score line to reach the final spot. Her Czech opponent, Hradecka was receiving her achievements on the other side of the draw and edged past
Sara Errani of Italy in the semi-finals to clinch a 6-1, 7-5 win to enter into the finals.
The 25-year-old Hradecka, who was chasing her first WTA title at the tournament, tried her best to compete with her opponent. Miserably failing to do so, she was sent packing with a 6-4, 2-6, 2-6 score. The Italian pro held her
nerves under pressure and beautifully manoeuvred the Czech round the court with her magnificent serves that Hradecka had no response to. Hradecka’s poor serving couldn’t help her and she lost the match in straight sets. She put only 53 percent of her first
balls into play and won a meager 52 percent of first serve points to suggest she was comfortably outplayed, being broken five times with 44 percent of points in total.
Vinci recovered from a poor first set where Hradecka was dominant in every way. The Italian pro worked hard and posted a very strong service figures in the final two sets to turn the match in her favour. She was very strong from
the baseline, winning 11 of 13 games from 4-6 down to clinch the title. With this success the Italian pro has added her fourth WTA title to her repertoire with her first at Bogota in 2007, second here in 2009 and the third at Luxembourg in 2010.
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