Sara Errani dispatches Alexandra Cadantu to reach the semis – XXV Italiacom Open 2012
World number nine, Sara Errani, eased her way into the semi-finals of the XXV Italiacom Open at the expense of the 22-year-old Romanian, Alexandra Cadantu. The match was played on the eve of Friday; featuring a battle of 67 minutes
that ended in a straight sets victory, 6-2, 6-2, for the Italian top seed contestant.
The Roland Garros French Open finalist, Errani, opened up the match proceedings with a comprehensive serve hold. She exerted pressure on her foe in the following game; forcing the 85th ranked Romanian to dig deep and
survive an early scare of losing a breakpoint.
Both players held their serves to love in the following two games that pushed the scores to 2-2. Errani dropped two points in the following game before bagging the third straight serve hold at the clay courts of Palermo.
Suddenly, the 25-year-old Italian broke serve against the run of play and stamped her authority on the game. She won four points on the trot that further lifted her morale and drowned her opponent to a trail of 2-4.
Furthermore, a commanding serve hold to love enhanced the scores to 5-2 in favour of the top seed Italian who looked extremely threatening at that stage of the game. Cadantu tried to keep the set alive but lost another breakpoint
in the following game that proved to be the final action from the first phase of play.
It was a sound start for the match favourite Errani and the chances of an upset looked far from real especially the way Cadantu stumbled over in the dying stages of the opening set. No breakpoints opportunities were constructed
from the Romanian starlet compared to two of her rival. She managed just 15 points from the total of 43 played and posed a dismal first and second serve conversion rate of 53% and 43% respectively.
An exchange of breakthroughs marked the beginning of the second set that witnessed flurry of breakpoints at both ends. However, the two critical serve holds proved beneficial for the Italian who bagged four breakpoints in the second
phase of the match compared to just two of her competitor.
Errani won 26 points out of 42 played; converted all four breakpoints in her favour and posted a satisfactory first serve conversion rate to finish the match in her favour.
Meeting up with the Italian top seed in the final is another Romanian fighter, Irina-Camelia Begu.
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