Roberta Vinci edges Barbora Zahlavova Strycova to reach round two – Toray Pan Pacific Open 2012
World number 15, Roberta Vinci, battled past the 85th ranked Czech star, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, in the opening round clash of the Toray Pacific Open on Sunday. She clinched the win in three set; won the first 6-4,
lost the second 4-6 but held her nerves to steal the final 7-5.
Vinci has never lost an encounter against the 26-year-old Czech. The history between the two players started in 2006 and still after the passage of six years, Strycova has not been able to solve the puzzle of Vinci; losing four
times in the pursuit of victory. The 29-year-old Italian is in emphatic run of form having reached the quarter-finals of the US Open Championship earlier this month.
The Italian began the competition with a serve hold and so did her foe. Both players bagged the respective serve games to make it 2-2 but the Czech star found an opening in the fifth game and clinched the first breakthrough of
the match. However, she couldn’t retain the lead until the end and gifted the breakpoint back in the eighth game. Vinci had the momentum in her favour; serve hold in the following game was coupled with a breakthrough in the 10th that rounded off
the first set proceedings in her favour.
Both players traded breakpoints at the start of the second set before the Italian managed to protect the second breakthrough and took a lead of 4-1 courtesy another serve hold. However, the comeback was witnessed by the 26-year-old
Czech who broke serve in the seventh game and levelled the scores at 4-4 with a serve hold.
The momentum was in favour of Strycova who broke serve for the third time in the set and didn’t falter in the following game to enforce the final set into play. Stage was set for an epic ending and it turned out to be one classy
thriller.
Both players broke each other’s serve once in the first six games that kept the score tied at 3-3. No drama pushed the scores to 6-5 in favour of the Italian with her opponent serving to stay in the match. It seemed like the tie-breaker
round was inevitable but a stunning onslaught from the 15th ranked Italian ended the encounter a bit earlier than expected.
Roberta Vinci grabbed a breakpoint in the 12th game and confirmed the second round spot. She will lock horns against the winner of the encounter between Pauline Parmentier and Alize Cornet.
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