CORNET IS NEXT

Francesca Schiavone will face Alize Cornet of France in the quarter final of the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem.

This season has been a tough one for Schiavone. She hasn’t managed to reach the semi finals in any tournament this season.

Her best performance thus far in the ongoing season was in the tournament in Acapulco where she had reached the final 8. She had been defeated by Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in the quarter finals there.

She has reached the quarter finals here at Morocco as well and she would want to go all the way this time around.

Schiavone has won her first couple of matches in this tournament quite comfortably. In the first round, she took on Petra Martic of Croatia and defeated her in the straight sets by 7-6, 6-4.

In the second round, Schiavone had another easy win over the Romanian player Simona Halep.

On the other hand, Cornet had a mixed last season, but, in this season, she hasn’t played that badly. She has been consistent and has played well in most of the tournaments.

In this tournament, Cornet started with a dominating victory over the local player Fatima El Allami in the first round. However, in the following round, she was tested a bit by Karin Knapp of Italy. She lost the first set by 1-6 in that match, but, then, came back to win the next two sets.

Schiavone has a dominating record against Cornet. She has played against the Frenchwoman 8 times before and has defeated her 7 times.

However, Cornet’s current world ranking is a bit better than Schiavone. She is at no. 33, while, Schiavone is at no. 48.

So, quite clearly, some of the stats are in Schiavone’s favour, while, the others are in the favour of Cornet. So, it’s hard to tell who will be the favourite in tomorrow’s match. It’s a 50-50 kind of a clash.

Francesca Schiavone Hitting a Nadal Forehand

Schiavone Video clip Score: / five

Dubai Interviews: Wozniacki, Zvonareva, Schiavone, Stosur & Li

Schiavone Video Rating: four / 5

SCHIAVONE RUES MISTAKES

Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Marion Bartoli in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open which is being played at Doha. Bartoli won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(5), 6-3.

In the next round, Bartoli will face Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia who made her way into the second round with a win over Bethanie Mattek-Sands of USA.

Bartoli didn’t have a good start in the match against Schiavone. She dropped her serve in the second game of the opening set and got trailed by 0-3. The next five games went with the serve and at the end of the eighth game; Bartoli was trailed by 3-5. The Frenchwoman got a breakthrough in the ninth game and then, she held her serve in the next game to level the scores.

Both the players held their serve in the next couple of games and the scores got tied at 6-6.

In the tie breaker, both the players fought hard for each and every point, but, it was Bartoli who prevailed eventually.

In the second set, Bartoli again had a poor start and she dropped her serve in the very first game. But, she recovered quickly by breaking Schiavone’s serve in the second game. There were no breakthroughs in the next three games and at the end of the fifth game; the score was 3-2 in the favour of Bartoli.

In the sixth game, Bartoli managed to sneak another breakthrough and then, by serving out the next game, she got ahead by 5-2. Schiavone desperately needed breakthroughs to prevent Bartoli from running away with the match, but, she didn’t succeed in that. With a serve hold in the 9^th game, Bartoli won the match and cruised into the next round.

J. Jankovic v F. Schiavone Highlights Women’s Singles Quarter Final: Brisbane International 2012

Schiavone Video Rating: 4 / five

SCHIAVONE FALLS

Francesca Schiavone has been defeated by Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic in the first round of the Australian Open 2013. Kvitova won the match in the straight sets by 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. She took approximately two hours to win the match.

Kvitova’s form hadn’t been that good before coming into this tournament. She had been thrashed in the first round of the Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament by Dominika Cibulkova and then, she was knocked out from the second round of the Brisbane International Tennis tournament last week.

Kvitova struggled a bit in this match as well. She made a total of 42 unforced errors and also served 9 double faults. But, despite making quite a few mistakes, Kvitova managed to get better of Schiavone.

Kvitova got a couple of breakthroughs in the first set and won the first set easily by 6-4. But, in the second set, she failed in capitalizing on the chances that she got. She got four breakpoints, but, she couldn’t convert any of them. She paid the price for that and ended up losing the second set by 2-6.

But, in the final set, Kvitova bounced back. She held all her serves and broke Schiavone’s service twice to win the third set and thus, the match.

In the post match interview, Kvitova said, “I could have performed better, but, I am happy with the end result. This year hasn’t been good for me so far. I was knocked out early in the last couple of tournaments. I don’t want the same thing to happen in this tournament as well. I want to go all the way through and win the tournament. That would make up for my failures in the last two events.”

In the second round, Kvitova will take on Laura Robson of Britain.