Roberta Vinci survives Nadia Petrova in the quarter-final – Estoril Open 2012
World number 23, Roberta Vinci, strained past the 35th ranked Russian, Nadia Petrova, in the quarter-final of the Estoril Open in Portugal on Thursday. She clinched the win in an hour and 46 minutes registering scores
of 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
Petrova lost the opening serve game and was thumped back to a trail of 1-4 in the opening set. It was a commanding start for the top seed Italian and with a couple of serve holds in the following three games, she bagged the opening
set with ease.
However, the tables were turned upon the Italian by the seventh seed Russian in the second set. Petrova broke serve in the second game and retained her lead by the end of the fifth game. She registered another thumping breakthrough
and clinched the third breakpoints of the set; held her serve and levelled the set scores to one apiece.
The final set began with a double breakthrough for the Russian who gusted away to a lead of 3-0. It looked like the Italian top seed was going to go down again in the quarter-finals of the tournament. However, Vinci bullied her
way back into the contest by winning three games on the trot including two breakpoints that levelled the scores at 3-3.
With no drama in the following three games, scores moved on to 5-4 in favour of the top seed and seventh seed Russian had to hold serve to stay in the set. Petrova failed to perform the basics right and committed two unforced errors
that gifted away the win to her opponent.
On her triumph, she mentioned about her opponent saying, “She beat me the last two times we played but it was on hard court, and on clay it's different.” She further added, “I play better on clay. Today I was able to play a good
game with good structure in the points, and that was probably the key."
Talking about Roland Garros French Open, Vinci said, “Probably the key to Italy's success was Schiavone winning Roland Garros two years ago. We all wanted to play good tournaments like her, so we all improved and just tried to
get better. And last year I had a great year. I'm playing well. I'm much more confident than when I was younger."
Roberta Vinci will go head-to-head with the sixth seed Estonian starlet, Kaia Kanepi, for a battle to book a place in the final of the tournament.
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