Thursday’s schedule at the Palermo Ladies Open featured four second-round matches and in the first three the winners rallied from a set down in encounters that lasted over two hours.
After losing the first set, fourth seed Anett Kontaveit raised her level in the second and third sets and converted her fifth match point to avoid an upset by Laura Siegemund, 3-6 6-2 6-2. The Estonian world No.22 has not lost to a player ranked outside the Top 50 for more than a year, i.e. since 2019 Wimbledon when she fell to 68th-ranked Karolina Muchova, who has since climbed to the 26th spot in the rankings. Kontaveit’s next opponent will be 19-year-old Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto, the youngest Italian to reach a WTA quarterfinal since July 2006.
Top seed Petra Martic saved nine out of ten break points she faced in the first set, but her opponent, Russian qualifier Liudmila Samsonova fought off 3/3 and narrowly won the first set. Still, it was the Croatian favorite who celebrated a victory after two and a half hours of play, 5-7 6-4 6-2. Martic’s quarterfinal opponent will be Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
In yet another three-set comeback win, home favorite Camila Giorgi fought past qualifier Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 3-6 6-2 6-4. Giorgi’s next obstacle will be seventh seed Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine, who wrapped up the second-round action at about 1 a.m. with a 6-2 6-4 victory over French lucky loser Oceane Dodin.
The fourth quarterfinal pair was determined yesterday — Sara Errani vs. Fiona Ferro.
There are three Italians in the Palermo Ladies Open quarterfinals — Sara Errani, Camila Giorgi and Elisabetta Cocciaretto. It is the first time this has happened at a WTA event since 2015 Hobart (Giorgi, Knapp, Vinci) and the first time in Palermo since 2010 (Errani, Oprandi, Pennetta), as the WTA Insider reports on Twitter.
Photographer Jimmie48 attended all the four matches at the Palermo Ladies Open on Thursday. Check out his gallery below:
MORE PHOTOS FROM THE 2020 PALERMO LADIES OPEN:
- Wednesday: Errani, Cocciaretto please home fans with second-round victories
- Tuesday: Juvan upsets Vondrousova, Kontaveit wraps up first-round action
- Monday: Vekic wins first main-draw WTA match after coronavirus hiatus, Pliskova closes the day at 2 a.m.
- Sunday: Smiles under masks as players welcome the return of competition
- Saturday: Tennis finally returns after a five-month coronavirus shutdown
