Veronica Cepede Royg edges past Romana Tabak into title match – Santiago ITF 2011
Second seeded Paraguayan, Veronica Cepede Royg, stomped over the eight seeded Slovak, Romana Tabak, in straight sets at the Copa Providencia BCI 2011, an ITF event taking place on the clay courts in Santiago, Chile. She manifested
a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the Slovakian starlet to advance into the final round on Friday.
World number 231, Royg displayed awe-inspiring skills to dump the Slovak, ranked 78 places below her in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier Rankings. After booking a final round spot, she got one step closer to lift her second title
of the season.
The higher ranked seed, Royg made a shaky entry in the first set and lost her opening serve. However, she re-focused quickly and snatched the break in the proceeding game. Later, the Paraguayan kept entire serve and broke Tabak’s
serve again in the end to clinch the opener with a 6-4 score line. She brushed off three out of four breakpoints came across and cashed in half of the four break chances to her advantage.
The Paraguayan kept momentum floating into the final set and easily swiped in her opening serve. Afterwards, she fired powerful groundstrokes from her box of tricks and held entire serves convincingly. Royg defended all breakpoints
came across through her amazing defensive skills and converted one to her advantage in the last game to seal the success with a 7-5 win.
The 19-year-old Paraguayan is enjoying an amazing season so far. The first tournament she played this season was at the Buenos Aires ITF in March where Royg made a final four appearance (lost to fourth seed Argentina’s Florencia
Molinero). She then reached the quarter-finals at Itaparica and Rome-Tevere Remo ITF events before making another semi-final berth at Denain. Her performance peaked at the Campos Do Jordao ITF event in July where she earned the spotlight after triumphing her
maiden career title (dumped Venezuelan Adrian Perez in the final round). Royg then reached the last four in Asuncion last month before entering this tournament in full confidence.
The Paraguayan rallied past Austrian Tina Schiechtl in the opening round and crushed Brazilian Maria Fernanda Alves in the second round. She then eased past Argentinean Maria Irigoyen in straight sets to set-up this meeting.
Next up for the seed is the Argentinean Mailen Auroux who drilled through Brazilian qualifier Paula Cristina Goncalves with a breadstick to reach this final spot. Royg can easily surpass the unseeded Argentinean if she maintains
consistency in her game.
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