Victoria Azarenka cruises into the third round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus eased past Sara Errani of Italy with a breadstick in the 2011 Internazionali BNL D’Italia, a WTA Premier 5 event held in Rome, Italy. She registered a 6-1, 6-2 victory over the 24-year-old to advance into the third round on Wednesday.
World number four Azarenka took only sixty-four minutes to dump the world number thirty-nine Italian at Foro Italico. It was their fifth meeting and after earning this victory, the Belarusian extended the lead in her head-to-head series by 4-1 against Errani.
21-year-old displayed top notch performance in the opening set as she lost her serve once and won all remaining six games to clinch with a breadstick. She had a slightly higher first serve share of 68 percent as compared to Italian’s 66 percent, Azarenka registered a convincing 46 percent win on it. She found eleven breakpoint opportunities and converted four to her advantage to win easily.
The beaming Belarusian carried her winning ways into the final set and held her opening serve spectacularly. She then smoothly kept her remaining serves and converted two out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to two. Azarenka produced a higher first serve share of 77 percent as opposed to Errani’s 61 percent and earned an impressive 76 percent win on it.
The seeded Belarusian is in awesome form this season as she defeated former world number one Maria Sharapova to win the title at Miami and downed Romanian qualifier Irina Begu to win the title at Marbella. She then reached the final at Monterrey before losing to sixteenth seed, Czech Petra Kvitova. Azarenka stormed into Rome and triumphed over the Italian in her opening round match.
Errani showed her top class at start of the season and made a quarter-final berth at Hobart. She then reached the final at Pattaya and made semi-final berths at Marbella and Barcelona before entering in this clay court tournament. The Italian earned a victory against her countrywoman Roberta Vinci who retired due to an injury in the first round but she was outclassed in this match and eventually exited from Rome.
Up next for the Belarusian is the sixteenth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
"Anastasia's a tough opponent," Azarenka said about her opponent. "We've never played on clay and it will be a great challenge. But I feel good. I'm so happy playing tennis - I think it shows in my performances on the court."
The Russian defeated her compatriot Vera Dushevina in straight sets to reach this spot.
Tags: