Alisa Kleybanova cruises into second round of Internazionali BNL d’Italia; joined by Ana Ivanovic
Russian Alisa Kleybanova eased past American qualifier Varvara Lepchenko in straight sets of the 2011 Internazionali BNL D’Italia, a clay court tournament held in Rome, Italy. She registered a 6-2, 6-2 win over the 24-year-old American on Monday to advance into the second round of this tournament.
Ranked 26th in the WTA Premier rankings, Kleybanova trashed the American, ranked 60 places below her, in seventy-nine minutes to advance in this WTA Premier 5 event.
21-year-old Russian is in good shape this season as she reached semi-finals at Sydney, the first tournament she participated this season. She then made quarter-final berths at Dubai and Estoril before entering this tournament confidently.
Facing each other for the first time at Foro Italico, the Russian completely outclassed Lepchenko in their opening round match. Despite committing three double faults and registering a poor first serve share of 42 percent as compared to the American’s 72 percent, she earned a perfect win on it. Kleybanova saved two out of three breakpoint faced and converted three out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the set with an assuring 6-2 score line.
She kept the momentum rolling into the final set and regardless of producing similar mistakes of clobbering more double faults and a poor first serve share, Kleybanova registered an impressive 70 percent win on it. She failed to save the only breakpoint conceded but converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games to two again.
The Russian will next face the winner of the match between tenth seeded Israeli Shahar Pe’er and Serb Bojana Jovanovski.
Joining her in the second round would be the former world number one Ana Ivanovic. She recreated her magic and slew Russian Nadia Petrova without losing any game. Ivanovic produced a much better first serve share of 73 percent as compared to Petrova’s 56 percent and earned an amazing 79 percent win on it.
23-year-old Serb unleashed a flurry of ground strokes to reel off first nine games in a row after which 28-year-old Petrova was forced to retire due to a hip strain. She saved all three breakpoint faced and converted five out of nine breakpoint opportunities to her advantage make the 6-0, 3-0 score line.
"Winning this first match means a lot to me - it was quite a tough draw but I was ready for a challenge," Ivanovic commented after the match. "There are no easy opponents but I'm ready to take my chances. It's really good to be back in Rome."
The thirteenth seed Serb will next face Belgian Yanina Wickmayer who bounced back to win against the Lucky Loser, German Angelique Kerber in a three set thriller.
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