WTA Palermo: Italian evening with a big surprise
At the WTA tournament in Palermo, two local heroes qualified for the quarter-finals. Both were not exactly expected there.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Aug 06, 2020, 08:25 am
First, veteran Sara Errani, who entered the tournament with a wild card, beat Kristyna Pliskova in three sets. Errani, who had to go the full distance at the start against Sorana Cirstea, won 3: 6, 6: 4 and 6: 3. Now Fiona Ferro from France is waiting, who was able to assert herself against Ekaterina Alexandrova, who was sixth, with 7: 5 and 6: 2. Errani, nine-time tournament winner on the WTA Tour and French Open finalist in 2012, is currently only in 169th place in the world rankings.
However, Elisabetta Cocciaretto provided the surprise of the day. Already the victory in the first round against Polona Hercog came unexpectedly, in her second appearance in Palermo the Italian didn’t miss anything against the number four of the tournament, Donna Vekic, at 6: 2 and 6: 4. Cocciaretto is now waiting for the winner of the match between Laura Siegemund and Anett Kontaveit. For the 19-year-old Italian, it will be the first quarter-finals in a WTA tournament. The success against Hercog was Cocciaretto's first ever in a main draw on the tour.
There was nothing to get for Jasmine Paolini, who had to admit defeat to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich with 0: 6 and 2: 6 after her epic win against Maria Sakkari. Paolini stood on the court for more than three hours against Sakkari.