Samantha Stosur dispenses Polona Hercog; moves into the quarterfinals of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
The world number seven, Samantha Stosur of Australia, exhibited brilliant tennis skills to outplay the 69th ranked Polona Hercog of Slovenia in the third round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Italy, on Thursday
afternoon. The Australian number one took just one hour and twenty minutes to wrap up her straight sets victory at 6-3, 6-4, to be the second contestant to qualify for the quarter-final of the $2,050,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
The sixth seed Australian proved her dominance over the clay surface once again and had least trouble in disposing off her Slovenian opponent from the contest. Stosur broke two out of three times, while her opponent failed to register
even a single serve break in the entire contest. Although Stosur’s serve precision was a bit lesser than her opponent, her points winning proficiency was phenomenal in the contest. She reeled off 44 out of 61 serve points in the game, without conceding any
double fault in the matchup.
Stosur had a cautious start to the match, as she was facing the Slovenian opponent for the first time. Hercog held serve in her opening two games before Stosur delivered her first blow to her by cracking in a serve break to lead
4-2. Hercog couldn’t recover from the damage inflicted by the break point and frittered away two break opportunities in the opener. The Aussie kept playing error-free tennis to exert pressure upon her opponent and eventually sealed off the first set at 6-3
to get one up in the competition.
Stosur uplifted her first serve to an amazing 78 per cent and clinched 21 out of 27 total serve points in the next set to remain on top of the game. She struck a single serve break, which proved decisive in the game and resulted
in victory for Stosur at 6-4.
The Australian moves into the quarter-final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and will be facing either the second seeded home favourite Francesca Schiavone or Daniela Hantuchova in the round of eight. The clash between Schiavone
and Hantuchova will be decided later today.
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