Sara Errani beats Marion Bartoli to reach the semi-final – New Haven Open 2012
World number 10, Sara Errani, squashed the 11th ranked Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 to clear the quarter-final stage of the New Haven Open on the eve of Thursday.
Bartoli led the head-to-head scores 1-0 before the encounter, having won the second round clash in the US Open, almost five years back. However, a lot has changed since that time and the 25-year-old Italian has improved a lot especially
in the recent times. So, she was the favourite this time and she proved it as well.
Errani commenced the match with a serve hold and broke serve in the second game to take a lead of 2-0 upfront. She continued to rule the show and allowed just point to her opponent before improving the lead to 3-0. She squandered
three back-to-back breakpoints in the fourth game but Bartoli kept on providing chances and Errani wasn’t going to miss out on the fourth occurrence; lead extended to 4-0.
The number one Frenchwoman fought to restore some respect and managed to squeeze two breakpoints back by the end of the ninth game. She was on course to level the scores at 5-5 but her competitor picked up the momentum; earned
an opportunity to break serve and ended the resistance by winning a breakpoint.
The Italian superstar started the second set in emphatic fashion as well. She won the first four games in the similar style; breaking her opponent’s serve twice and again dropped a breakpoint in the fifth game that decreased her
lead to 4-2.
However, the 27-year-old French couldn’t repeat a similar comeback like the opening set as she was forced to end the resistance after losing the third breakpoint of the match.
Errani said about her next opponent, "I lost against her in Fed Cup, also in Australia - of course, she's a very good player. But we will see. I'm playing well. I'm confident. She plays a strong ball like Bartoli, so I will try
to change the game again."
She faces the second seed Czech star, Petra Kvitova, in the semi-final on the eve of Friday.
Tags: