Seeded Francesca Schiavone advances at the Sony Ericsson Open
5th seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone dumped world number 60, German Angelique Kerber in straight sets. She earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory over the German to advance to the third round at Key Biscayne in Miami.
After winning on the hard courts at the Australian Open in 2008, the world number four Schiavone continued to display her tremendous abilities in this tournament to trash the 23-year-old German out of this tournament. She now has
extended her head to head lead by 2-0.
The 30-year-old Italian, who showed splendid skills at the Australian Open and reached the quarter-finals before losing to the world number one Caroline Wozniacki, was in great form in the opening set. She smashed two aces, had
a slightly higher first serve share of 52 percent as compared to Kerber’s 50 percent and registered an impressive 73 percent win on it. Schiavone also saved three out of four breakpoints and converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage
to clinch the set with a 6-4 win.
Kerber on the other side of net, committed less double faults, saved two breakpoints and even broke Schiavone’s serve once but still she couldn’t edge over the top five Italian. Despite entering this tournament in full confidence
after reaching the final at Nassau ITF before losing to Anastasiya Yakimova, she couldn’t edge over the seeded Italian.
Schiavone improved her form in the final set and maintained her winning momentum. She fired an ace, committed less double faults and had a higher first serve share of 63 percent as compared to German’s 53 percent. Through her awesome
defensive abilities, the Italian saved three out of four breakpoints and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the set with a 6-4 score line again.
She will next face Spanish Lourdes Dominguez Lino who reached this spot after upsetting 31st seeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova. Lino made an epic comeback from a set down to overpower the seeded Bulgarian by a 5-7,
6-3, 6-4 victory.
The 2nd seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters also advanced to the next round after destroying Belarusian Anastasiya Yakimova with double breadsticks.
The world number two, Clijsters displayed her exceptional skills in the match and gave her top notch performance. Though she had a lower first serve share of 46 percent as opposed to Belarusian’s 55 percent, she earned a spectacular
78 percent win on it. She converted two out of three breakpoints and converted six out of eight breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the match with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Yakimova.
Clijsters will next face 27th seeded Spanish Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez who also reached this spot after earning a breadstick.
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