TENNIS – Camila Giorgi and Aleksandra Wozniak are the biggest surprises from the opening day of week two at Indian Wells Premier Mandatory. The Italian took down in a arm-strong battle defending champion Maria Sharapova, while the Canadian has beaten another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Giulio Gasparin
Camila Giorgi and Aleksandra Wozniak are the biggest surprises from the opening day of week two at Indian Wells Premier Mandatory. The Italian took down in a arm-strong battle defending champion Maria Sharapova, while the Canadian has beaten another Russian, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Under the hot sun of California, Giorgi has surely scored the biggest upset of the day in the women’s draw.
The Italian, who came from the qualification draw and already defeated higher ranked players in the first two rounds –Petkovic and Cirstea-, expressed her super-aggressive tennis at best to overpower Sharapova.
The Russian did not seem to be in one of her best days, but the amount of unforced errors was clearly caused by the massive pressure put on her by the 22-year-old Italian, who appeared from the very beginning able to produce the same style of playing of the Russian, but at a higher speed.
Despite the high number of errors from both sides, 106 at the end, the match was thrilling and entertaining and finally characterized by a great effort from Giorgi, who found the decisive break at 5-5 in the third to close 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.
Giorgi will now face another Italian in the fourth round, as the more experienced compatriot Flavia Pennetta continued her winning streak over Sam Stosur.
Pennetta defeated the Australian number one in three sets of absolute high quality tennis from both players, but in the end it was all down to better groundstrokes and serve (11 aces) from the Italian, especially in the third set.
Not as surprising as Giorgi’s win, the other main upset of the day was caused by Wozniacki, who defeated Pavlyuchenkova in a strangely developed match.
The Canadian, who is coming back after countless health problems in the past few seasons, has hit a nice form of a late and showed glimpses of her best tennis, especially in the first and last sets.
The score reflected this as she closed 6-1, 6-7, 6-0, with the last set lasting just 10 minutes and the Russian winning four points in a whole.
Wozniak is now set to face the Australian Open winner, Li Na, who easily tamed the big serve of Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-4.
In the other matches of the day the Australian Open finalist and fresh winner of Acapulco Dominika Cibulkova needed all her best efforts to close in two sets a very tight battle against Ekaterina Makarova.
Cibulkova will now need the same focus as she is scheduled against former world number two Petra Kvitova, who struggled for two sets against Svetlana Kuznetsova before closing with a self-explanatory 6-0 in the third.
The last fourth round to be decided last night will feature Alisa Kleybanova, finally fully back after her very serious health disease, and Sloane Stephens, who edged past a far from being convincing Ana Ivanovic.
