Sunday, March 4, 2012

Errani wins it all in Acapulco

Yesterday, Sara Errani won both titles at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL in Acapulco. She defeated countrywoman Flavia Pennetta 5-7, 7-6, 6-0 in the singles final, and she and partner Roberta Vinci defeated Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-1, 6-2 in the doubles final. Errani was seeded third in singles and she and Vinci were seeded first in doubles.

This was Pennetta's seventh trip to the Acapulco final. She has reached the final every time she has entered the tournament except for her first time, in 2003, and she won the title on two of those occasions. Yesterday, physical fatigue got the better of her, however. Pennetta's run of seven consecutive finals at one event matches the run that Martina Hingis had in Tokyo.

This is Errani's third title, and her first one since 2008 (she won both titles in Palermo, too). The Italian player enjoyed unusual prominence at the 2012 Australian Open, when she reached the quarterfinals, defeating Sorana Cirstea and Zheng Jie along the way.

Meanwhile, in rain-soaked Kuala Lumpur, qualifier Hsieh Su-Wei won the title when Petra Martic retired from heat illness in the third set (2-6, 7-5, 4-1). The second semifinal, featuring Martic and Jelena Jankovic, had to be played on the same day as the final. Martic and Jankovic went at it for three hours and eight minutes, with Martic saving a match point and scoring a 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 victory.

With her victory at the Malaysian Open, Hsieh became only the second player from Chinese Taipei to win a WTA singles title. Two of her countrywomen, Chang Kai-Chen and Chuang Chia-Jung, won the doubles title. Chang and Chuang defeated top seeds Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova 6-4, 6-0.

3 comments:

Roi said...

I was really looking forward to see Flavia get crowned in Acapulco again, she kinda deserved it for all those years trying! However it was nice to se Errani getting things done, good for her.

About Flavia's run to the finals each year she has played, she did fell in QF back in 2003, the first time she played here and that was against eventual champion, the great Amanda Coetzer.

Diane said...

Does that mean she entered eight times and did seven consecutive finals, or does that mean that she did six out of seven runs as finals? I'll make the appropriate correction.

Diane said...

Ah, figured it out and have made a slight change. Thanks, Roi.