Roberta Vinci jostles Daniela Hantuchova in the Round Rubber contest – Tournament of Champions 2012
World number 16, Roberta Vinci, commenced the tour of Sofia with a fantastic victory over the Slovak age-fellow, Daniela Hantuchova, in the Round Rubber clash on Tuesday. The 29-year-old Italian ousted the 32nd ranked
Slovak in straight sets 6-1, 6-2 and registered her first win in the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions.
Earlier in the season, Hantuchova had defeated the 29-year-old Italian in the Apia Sydney International. The head-to-head scores were also tied at 2-2. So, the revenge mission was definitely in progress for Vinci who succeeded
in accomplishing his goal in just 65 minutes.
Vinci was all over her opponent in the opening set. She secured a 4-0 lead at the start of the contest courtesy to two successive breakpoints. She was close on registering a bagel but squandered an opportunity, however, did well
to serve out the set in the seventh game of the match. The Italian grabbed 29 off the 44 points and topped the good performance with an ace to her name.
A possible comeback from the Slovak starlet was expected in the second set but she stumbled in the opening game that rang the alarm bell for her fans. She recovered to win a breakthrough back in the second game but couldn’t hold
her serve and went down to a trail of 1-2. Vinci made no mistake in holding on to her serve and protected the second breakthrough to make it 3-1 in her favour.
Hantuchova kept on making unforced errors and gifted yet another breakpoint to her opponent who capitalized on it and pushed the scores to 5-1 in her favour. With no drama in the last two games of the match, Vinci managed to grab
a win on the first day.
Vinci commented in an on court interview, “I was playing well - when I'm playing well it's difficult to play against me. I don't think she was comfortable with my game. If I continue to play like this I think I have a good chance
at making the semis or final this week.”
Hantuchova assessed the match stating, “I never go to the court, not believing in myself - but today she played extremely well, not making any mistakes, especially in the first set. She totally outplayed me, and all of the credit
to her for the way she played against me out there today.”
Roberta Vinci will be playing her next Round Rubber match against Caroline Wozniacki on Wednesday.
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