Sara Errani brushes away Mandy Minella in her opening clash – Budapest Grand Prix 2012
Top seeded Italian veteran, Sara Errani, had no difficulties at all in disposing of the 85th ranked Luxembourgian, Mandy Minella, in the opening round of the Budapest Grand Prix on Tuesday. The world number 27, Errani,
took just 66 minutes of play to root out the 26-year-old opponent with double breadstick, 6-1, 6-1, with the utmost ease.
It was a completely one-sided affair with the top seed Italian dominating every second of the contest to stamp her authority over the game. It was the second time this season that Minella had suffered a cracking straight sets defeat
at the hands of Errani. She lost in the quarter-final battle at Monterrey, Mexico, 6-1, 6-2 and endured the similar feat on Tuesday to fall 0-3 in the all-time head-to-head series against the Italian.
Minella’s bleak game play was not good enough to break the solid defence of Errani throughout the contest. She stung the top seed with a break points only once in the entire matchup and had to bear six out of 10 break points to
finish on the losing side in the end. Errani clinched 20 out of 28 first serve points and caused further damage to Minella by bagging 15 out of 27 return points in the match. She went for the aggressive approach right away and continued firing assertive winner
all over the court to drive the Luxembourgian out of the tournament in a commanding fashion.
"It was a good start," Errani said after winning her 23rd match of the running season. "It's not always easy in the first round but I was enjoying myself out on court and I'm happy I didn't use up too much energy. The
courts here are quite slow and I think this is good for my game."
Errani will face the Hungarian qualifier, Melinda Czink, in the second round of the Budapest Grand Prix later this week. Czink avoided a scare at the hands of Mervana Jugic-Salkic in the opening round battle on Tuesday, ultimately
winning the stiff three-setter at 6-7(3), 6-0, 6-3, to meet the top seed Italian for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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