Tag: Schiavone

SCHIAVONE AIMING HIGH

February 14, 2012

Italy have reached the semi final stages of the Fed Cup after star player Flavia Pennetta recovered from a sore back to team up with Roberta Vinci to take the doubles match against the Ukraine and win the tie with a 3-2 margin.

But most of the credit for this win has gone to veteran tennis star Francesca Schiavone who made a strong statement of her intentions this year with a strong display against Kateryna Bondarenko, whom she beat in three sets after falling behind very early in the match.

Schiavone won her match 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4 to give the Italians a 2-1 lead in the tie before Ukraine pulled it back to 2-2 and the rest was left with Pennetta and Vinci, which they did quite convincingly. Schiavone, who has been the champion at Roland Garros, the French Open in 2010 and reached the final again last year before losing out to Na Li fell behind very early in the game and almost down and out in the first set, Francesca Schiavone made a strong comeback to take the set to a tie break where she lost 8-6.

She was also down 5-1 in the second set before rallying back to win the set 7-5 and take the match into a tie breaking third set, which she won pretty convincingly with a 6-4 margin. Schiavone has not been in the best of forms over the last year or so and the final of the French Open was her best result but this year, she is already showing signs that she has another Grand Slam in her before she retires.

Francesca Schiavone, at 31 years of age, has served the Italian team over the last 10 or so years and Pennetta and the others want to send her out on a high with a Fed Cup title win.

SCHIAVONE DEFEATS JANKOVIC

January 24, 2012

Francesca Schiavone has recently been in the spotlight in the sporting world after she defeated the previous world no. 1, Jelena Jankovic at the Brisbane International this year. But her performance at the Brisbane International has been commendable even before that.

Defeating Jankovic was what made the tennis community, but she began the Australian Open by defeating the fifth seeded local, Samantha Stosur, in straight sets. Stosur gave up her serve five times before she was finally defeated 6-2, 6-4in an hour and a half by the no. 11 player. Stosur’s loss came soon after her defeat at the hands of the Czech player, Iveta Benesova.

Francesca Schiavone’s match against Jankovic in the quarter finals was a total nail biter. Jankovic was playing very well early on in the match. In the first set, she got an early lead of 3-0. But Schiavone rallied to get her own back in the match and the scores became 3-3.

Soon after, the Italian rallied amazingly to claim another break, but lost her advantage through her own fault when she had two double faults. These came soon after Jankovic decided to consult her coach on the court. At this point, even the best tennis betting tips websites were saying that punters should back Jankovic, but Schiavone soon managed to prove them all wrong.

Jankovic has recently changed her coach and other members of her management staff in a bid to go up from her current 14^th ranking. The set ended 5-7 in favor of Jankovic. The next set began much like the previous one, with Jankovic looking to finish it off quickly. But they soon started to battle for the breaks and Schiavone broke her opponent’s serve when she was serving for the match at 5-3. Jankovic lost two match points and the set ended at 7-6.

Riding on her momentum, Schiavone dominated the final set, especially in terms of serve which was her major shortcoming in the earlier sets. She won the final set 6-3. Next up in the Brisbane International is Kaia Kanepi.

Schiavone Defeats the Williams Sisters

January 4, 2012

In an exhibition tournament held in the Italian city of Milan, Francesca Schiavone, the Italian tennis ace defeated both the Williams sisters to win the tournament in front of a huge home crowd, thereby ending her long wait for a title. Although the Williams sisters rallied back to win the doubles title in the tournament, the Italians can take heart from the fact that their own world number 11 managed to overcome the odds to defeat the might Venus and Serena Williams.

In the first match of the tournament, Schiavone defeated Venus, the elder of the two sisters in straight sets with a margin of 7-5, 7-3. She then went on to face sister Serena who gave her much more of a fight after losing the first set, but the 31 year old Italian managed to rally back and win the game in three sets with a margin of 7-3, 8-10, 8-6. The 2010 French Open champion showed glimpses of the touches and drop shots that had made her the world number 4 at the beginning of 2011, a position she failed to hold on to due to injury setbacks and a string of poor results to lowly ranked players.

But the way Francesca Schiavone rallied back against a particularly stubborn Serena Williams, it will give her a lot of confidence ahead of the start of the 2012 calendar season in Australia, where she reached the quarter finals stage in 2011, her best result in the tournament.

She will again be the only hope for a Grand Slam title for Italy in 2012 with the country struggling to produce top class tennis players in both the men’s and the women’s circuit but it all depends on whether Francesca Schiavone manages to keep herself fit for the duration of the year.