Roberta Vinci pounds Rebecca Marino in the first round – ASB Classic 2012
Italian sixth seeded, Roberta Vinci, ousted her Canadian counterpart, Rebecca Marino, in the first round of the ASB Classic tournament, contested in Auckland, New Zealand. Both contenders squared-off for the third time in the career and contested for
almost an hour and 15 minutes on hard courts in Auckland arena on Tuesday, with the final score settling at 7-5, 6-4 in favour of the 28-years-old Italian.
Both players have met each other twice before this encounter (at Wimbledon and China Open, last year) and unsurprisingly, it was the world number 23, Vinci, who bagged both the victories and took the head-to-head lead of 2-0. This was another opportunity
for the inferior ranked Marino to get off the mark but she failed to deliver what was required of her, losing the third encounter in a row against Vinci.
The Canadian commenced the game in grand fashion and helped herself with the first game triumph, delivering some breathtaking fast serves and outstanding control over the returns. She stunned everyone by breaking in the second game, hinting an upset
in the making to the local crowd. She broke once again in the fourth game and held her serve in the fifth to take 5-0 lead upfront.
Everyone knew that Vinci would not make it to the second round with such dismal start but the Italian exhibited her immense courage and willpower to fight back from that dead stage of the set. She pumped life into her game play by nailing a vital serve
break in the sixth game; held her serve and broke again to push the score to 5-3 but she was still trailing.
Marino would have never thought that she could lose the set from there but the third break in a row brought the score to 5-5. Crowd was jumping on their seats as they have seen a miracle comeback from the Italian. She hung in there and broke for the
fourth time in succession to take a lead of 6-5 and then held on to her serve to bag the set.
From the score of 0-5 to win the set is a massive achievement and can tarnish the confidence of the loser as well; Marino was on the receiving end of this thumping performance that completely melted her down and she never recovered from there.
Both players held their serves in the start of the second set but sixth seed soon capitalized on the opportunity provided to her and broke her rival’s serve. She struck another break of serve in the seventh game to take 5-2 lead; Vinci was held back
with the break in the eighth game for the Canadian but that was not good enough to stop her from winning the match.
Roberta Vinci’s wins sets up an interesting draw for her as she faces Russian Elena Vesnina in the next round.
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