Roberta Vinci ousts Karin Knapp to reach round two – XXV Italiacom Open 2012
World number 27, Roberta Vinci, ousted the 124th ranked compatriot, Karin Knapp, to get off the mark in the head-to-head series and more importantly book a place in the second round of the XXV Italiacom Open on Monday.
She registered straight sets 6-2, 6-2 score to commence her Palermo clay court tournament campaign.
The second seed Italian started the match in aggressive fashion and broke serve in the second game to take a lead. She continued to bash her opponent and bagged another breakpoint in the following return game; making it 4-0 at
the start. It was getting pretty ominous for the 25-year-old Italian Knapp and the scenario was not favouring her at all.
Knapp saved four breakpoints in the following two serve games to hold on but failed to test her rival; falling apart early in the opening set. It was a cracking result for the second seed Italian who needed that kind of a start
in singles campaign to regain some points and climb back into the Top-20’s.
Knapp committed five double faults and couldn’t construct a single breakpoint throughout the opening set. Early outbreak from Vinci proved a bit too much to recover for Knapp who did manage to win 28 rallies but fell short of eight
points in the end.
Hardly anything changed for Knapp in the second set. She struggled to take hold of her serves and fell for the guile and trickery of Vinci. She managed to win a breakpoint early in the second set that hinted at a turnaround in
the proceedings but a fantastic all-round performance from the Italian second seed in the following phase of the match completely ruined her chances.
Vinci won three breakpoints on the trot and grabbed 37 points compared to 31 of her rival. She ended the match in an hour and 36 minutes; driving her compatriot out of the contest with not much of a resistance.
In a post-match interview, Vinci stated, “I like this tournament and the atmosphere in this club. In Palermo, my best performance is the semi-finals and I hope to go further than that. My goal is to play in the final against my
best friend, Sara Errani. I want to say thanks to Tournament Director Oliviero Palma and Giorgio Cammarata for this wonderful present.”
She will be up against the British booming starlet, the 18-year-old Laura Robson.
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