Sandra Zahlavova ousts Roberta Vinci in the opening round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience
Another upset for the tennis fans as the seventh seed Italian, Roberta Vinci crashed out of the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella, Spain, after suffering a defeat at the hands of Sandra Zahlavova of Czech Republic. She wrapped up straight sets victory
7-5, 6-3, in just 94 minutes to enter the second round of the main draws of the Women’s Tennis Association tournament.
The 25-year-old Czech had suffered a defeat form Vinci way back in 2006 at Milan, but she outplayed the World Number 37 this time around to register her seventh win of the current WTA season. A brilliant display of character and sheer determination was witnessed
from Zahlavova to manoeuvre through the opener and she carried on her momentum in the following set to dispense Vinci from the tournament.
The seventh seed was let down by her ordinary serve in the game, as she reached just 51 percent accuracy and collecting 39 out of 78 total serve points in the game. Vinci hanged on for a while in the opening set, showing some signs of aggression but her
strokes did not meet their marks, mostly ending long and wide of court.
Zahlavova coughed three double faults in the game, in contrast to her opponent’s one, but her overall brilliance with the racquet over shadowed it. Her agility was phenomenal on the court, as she raided the net on regularity to clout forceful cross-court
winners to pressurise her opponent.
The opener kicked off with both players exchanging assertive strokes to take the better of one another. Zahlavova served brilliantly with 73 percent accuracy and clinched 19 of 33 total serve points in the first set. She broke early in the game, but the
Italian retaliated with two quick serve breaks to lead 4-2 in the opener.
A series of unforced errors from the seventh seed opened doors for Zahlavova to make a break-through in the game and she stung a break point to level the scores at 4-4. Vinci’s game took a downturn and she missed some of the easiest opportunities in the
game to let the Czech take the set away from her. Zahlavova constructed another serve break to seal the first set at 7-5, getting one up in the contest.
The Italian sunk further in the next set and her 45 percent accurate first serve could not contain the power hitting from her opponent. Zahlavova broke twice in the second before reaching the match point at 5-3 and concluded victory with a fore-hand winner
to advance to the second round at Marbella.
Zahlavova will have to wait to see who her next opponent is after the match-up between Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino of Spain and Monica Niculescu of Romania on Tuesday. The winner of the contest will square off Zahlavova in the next round.
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