Roberta Vinci downs Dominika Cibulkova to reach the final – UNICEF Open 2011
Seventh seed Italian, Roberta Vinci took down the fifth seed, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the semi-final of the UNICEF Open, being played at the Autotron park in Rosmalen, near 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
In the Friday noon’s matchup, Vinci took just one hour and fifteen minutes to register a straight sets victory over the Slovak opponent, settling the final score at 7-5, 6-1, to book a berth in the final of the WTA (Women’s Tennis
Association) tournament.
28-year-old Italian veteran had some tough time in the opening set of the contest but wound up the following set with the utmost ease to register her 17thvictory of the current year. Vinci has already defeated Cibulkova
on two prior occasions, the most recent being in Brisbane at the start of this year, when she disposed of the Slovak in straight sets to reach the quarter-final of the tournament. The Italian now leads the all-time head-to-head series against Cibulkova by
3-0.
The Slovak contestant hung in the opener for quite some time but appeared to have lost her steam towards the end. Cibulkova failed to pose a decent resistance in the second set of the game and proved to be a wall of sand against
the hard-hitting Vinci.
Vinci served brilliantly with 66 percent precision and took 28 out of 48 first serve points on it, while breaking her opponent seven times in the contest. Her victory was greatly assisted by plenty of unforced errors from Cibulkova,
who coughed seven costly double faults in the contest to exacerbate her position.
The opening set was stuffed with high quality tennis action from both competitors and an exchange of seven total serve breaks was witnessed from both women. Cibulkova went on neck-to-neck with the seventh seed, as momentum kept
oscillating in the opener and it appeared that the set is well on its way to a tie breaker round. Finally Vinci took the better of her opponent by stinging her fourth break point to seal the first set at 7-5.
The Italian had no real trouble in the next set as Cibulkova suddenly lost her steam, caught in a series of errant strokes and bestowed easy points to her opponent. Vinci struck three more serve breaks to conclude victory at 6-1
and moved in the final of the UNICEF Open, where she will face the unseeded Australian, Jelena Dokic for the championship title. Dokic was successful against Romina Oprandi, who retired from the semi-final encounter after getting injured in the second set.
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