Coming from the victorious clash in Brindisi at the Federation Cup Group I rubber match against the United States, the n.15 in women’s world rankings is now in Germany to play the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, the WTA Premier tournament on Stuttgart’s indoor clay courts.
In the first round Sarita picked and defeated her old acquaintace Agnieszka Radwanska – n.9 in the rankings and n.7 seed of the main draw – with the final score 7-6(8), 6-4. As expected from previous records, a tough match for Sara against “the Magician“: the 26-year-old of Cracow was ahead 7-2, even though Sara won their last meeting on clay in 2013 Roland Garros quartefinals.
Needless to say, even Aga knew very well that Sara is and will always be one the most tenacious and dangerous opponents to fight on clay: the Polish got off to a good start and took a temporary lead (5-3) but Sara immediately levelled back the match to reach the tie-break: after a 2-4 disadvantage, she managed to put up a 4-points winning streak to gain her first 2 set points chance. Aga hit back and gained herself 2 sets points, but still, the Italian won this clash with a perfect forehand winner (9-7). Specular development in the second set, Sara went ahead 4-2 to be lately tied by Radwanska. Luckly a further tie-break wasn’t needed: again, a forehand winner gave Sarita the decisive break and the final victory.
Next time – on Thursday – Sara will face Zarina Diyas, WTA’s n.32, who surprisingly stunned the German Sabine Lisicki with an incredible double bagle in less than a hour of play. No previous match record between the two.