Today was a tough day for Sarita since Christina McHale prematurely signed her elimination from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Pietrangeli arena (6-4, 6-4).
Exactly 2 years ago on the very same court, it was her to come out victorious in 3 sets against the American (7-5, 5-7, 6-2) after an interminable fight.
Unfortunately Sara – n.13 seed of the Roman draw – didn’t succeed in playing her best tennis, thus helping the 23-year-old New Jersey native-born who started her tournament from Qualifications. Despite a slow start (0-2) Sara counterattacked to get her break back but McHale didn’t seem to be affected by that and kept pushing for a 3 consecutive games streak, which gave her the first set. Also, the American wasn’t inclined to rest even for a moment and set up a major breakaway for the 5-1 lead in the second set. Sara put up a fight thanks to the amazing crowd in the stands, but just when she got close to tie the match at 4-5 McHale dampened everybody’s enthusiasm.
Here’s Sarita in post-match press conference:
“She played a great match. She managed to beat me in technics and tactics. I feel so regretful right now because I know I had to defend last year’s final round; I was so eager to give my best but at the end something can go wrong anytime. Maybe this can give everybody the closest idea of what I did in the past 3 years. There is no easy match. I tried until the very last point and made every effort but, you know, some days are worse than others. My opponent displayed a great serve performance and overpowered me with the forehand. That was the key of the match.”
