Sara Errani books a third round place at the 2011 Andalucia Tennis Experience
Italian tennis-pro Sara Errani recorded a straight sets victory over Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-1, 6-2 to make it to the third round at the 2011 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Italy.
The 23-year-old was delighted with her performance and aimed for similar results against the other top seed players at the tournament. Errani has been in terrific form since the start of this season. Although she fell at the first
hurdle of 2011 Brisbane, she made a strong comeback to book a quarterfinal berth at Hobart a week later.
Errani continued her impressive run on the Women’s Tennis Association tour at the Pattaya City finishing as a runner-up in the tournament. Following her consistent performances she moved up the WTA rankings significantly. At 2011
Indian Wells she defeated Jarmila Groth and Greta Arn in her opening two matches before she fell to number 2 seed Kim Clijsters in three tight sets.
The match started on a very positive note for Errani. She broke the serve in the very first game of the opening set. Errani claimed four successive points on her opponent’s serve to earn three break points and then converted the
second one with a wonderful backhand strike wide of Barrois. The Italian went on to drop only a single game in a set that was wrapped up under first half an hour.
In the second set, Errani capitalized on the psychological advantage she had gained earlier. Although Barrois made the first serve break in the set, Errani came back strongly with a double serve break to lead the scoreline 4-2.
She pocketed the next two games cheaply to secure an easy win.
In addition to a strong attacking ability, the Italian used her power-hitting baseline strategy to great effect. Errani saved 6 out of 10 break points during the contest. She served with extreme accuracy to achieve 76 per cent
first serve conversion. The 23-year-old dominated the challenger in the serve return department as well securing nearly 60 per cent of the points.
In contrast, Barrois struggled to find her game and committed a large number of unforced errors. She came close to the net once too often and hence paid the price. Ranked 79th in the world, Barrois was a no match for
the high quality tennis displayed by her opponent.
Errani has a positive win to loss record so far in the running season. Winner of two Women’s Tennis Association title, will be hoping for her third career triumph here at Marbella. However, consistency is going to be the key if
she wants to go the distance at the clay courts tournament.
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