Simona Halep plonks Roberta Vinci to sail into the quarters – Barcelona Ladies Open 2012
Romanian booming starlet, Simona Halep, registered the major upset of the Barcelona Ladies Open on Wednesday by knocking-out the defending champion, Roberta Vinci, in the second round. She trashed her in straight sets 6-1, 6-3
and rushed into the quarter-final stage of the tournament.
It was Vinci’s second defeat at Barcelona in the four years having won the title twice in 2009 and 2011. She didn’t look comfortable in the opening round clash as well and the lack of confidence led to her downfall. She will be
extremely disappointed to have put up such a miserable show at her favourite tennis arena.
On her triumph, the 20-year-old Romanian said, “I played Roberta once before and she beat me, in Paris on hard courts. I knew it would be a difficult match but I tried my best and am very happy how it went. The first match back
on clay was tough for me this week, but I've improved day by day. I like it a lot here in Barcelona. I'm feeling great."
World number 46, Halep, broke serve in the third game of the match and powered down her opponent again in the following return game. She repeated the similar performance in the last game of the opening set to race past her competitor
in an emphatic fashion.
The miserable performance in the opening set was soon forgotten in the start of the second set when the Romanian player went down 0-2 after losing the first serve game. However, she again took hold of the proceedings with a breakthrough
in the third game and levelled the scores at 2-2. Both players registered serves holds in the following three games pushing the scores at 4-3 in favour of Halep.
A terrible mistake in the eighth game by the Italian fourth seed contestant pulled curtains for her. She committed three back-to-back unforced errors; gifting away the critical breakpoint to her competitor. The Romanian completed
a majestic comeback with a thumping serve hold and sent a strong message to all her potential rivals that she was out there and meant business.
Next up for the Romanian youngster is the Spanish number one, Carla Suarez Navarro, who also registered an upset against the sixth seed Czech, Petra Cetkovska, in the second round of the tournament. It will be eye-startling quarter-final
battle between these two players; a match that should not be missed by tennis fanatics.
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