Roberta Vinci outclasses Monica Niculescu to reach the final eight – UNICEF Open 2012
Italian sixth seed, Roberta Vinci, won the second round battle against the 31st ranked Romanian, Monica Niculescu, in the UNICEF Open on Wednesday. She conquered the 24-year-old Romanian 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-0 taking an hour
and 55 minutes at grass courts of s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Niculescu commenced the match with a serve hold, so did her rival. However, the Italian sixth seed took an early lead in the third game. She broke her opponent’s serve at 15:40 and coupled it with an impressive hold to post 3-1
score line.
The Romanian couldn’t test her opponent, except in the eighth game when she was close on winning a break back but she failed to convert that opportunity in her favour. Vinci marched on with another breakthrough in the following
game that ended the first set.
Trailing one set down, the 24-year-old Romanian started the second set in emphatic fashion; won two breakpoints on the trot to take a lead of 3-0. However, the Italian was able to sneak one break point back in the fourth game and
capitalized on her serve to lessen the trail to 2-3.
Both players swapped breakpoints before Vinci won another breakthrough in the 10th game of the set to deny her opponent from a set triumph. In a tie-breaker round, the Romanian showed supreme class and won an early mini-break
that proved enough to enforce the third set into play.
A thunderous reply from the 29-year-old Italian in the final set shut her critics completely. She won three back-to-back breakpoints and held her serve on the other end to report a bagel. Despite saving six breakpoints, the Romanian
starlet was unable to avoid an embarrassing end to a promising campaign. She had an opportunity to break serve but couldn’t capitalize on that as well.
Vinci won 30 points in the final set compared to just 16 of her rival. She smashed three aces and converted a considerable percentage of first and second serves to her favour. In an interview at the end of the match, Vinci said,
“It was a tough match but I played really well today, especially in the first set. I like to play on grass and I like s-Hertogenbosch. I won last year so I have good memories here, and I'm happy to be in the quarterfinals."
Vinci will be up against the Belgian qualifier, Kirsten Flipkens, who defeated the top seed Aussie, Samantha Stosur, in the opening round.
Tags: