Palermo PHOTOS: Top seed Martic advances, Giorgi the only Italian left standing after quarterfinals

August 7, 2020

Top seed Petra Martic survived yet another tough battle to progress into the Palermo Ladies Open semifinals, while Camila Giorgi is the only of the three Italians to make it past the quarterfinals.

Top seed Petra Martic reached her second semifinal of the season by winning a high-quality match against qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich in two tiebreaks 7-6(5) 7-6(3). Winners far outweighed unforced errors in the games of both players, as Martic hit 54 winners to 23 unforced errors, while her opponent’s ratio was 45 to 28.

Nineteen-year-old Italian wildcard Elisabetta Cocciaretto took fourth seed Anett Kontaveit to three sets, but in the end her Cindarella run was over as the Estonian dominated the first and third sets and won 6-1 4-6 6-1 to book a semifinal meeting with Martic.

France’s Fiona Ferro enjoyed a relatively comfortable victory over Italian wildcard Sara Errani, finishing the match with a 6-4 6-1 scoreline by virtue of a +21 winners-to-unforced-errors differential, as opposed to her opponent’s -6.

The Palermo Ladies Open marked the first time since 2015 Hobart that as many as three Italian players reached the quarterfinals, but the only of the three ladies to advance to the final four is Camila Giorgi, who fought past seventh seed Dayana Yastremska in a late-night thriller, 4-6 7-6(5) 6-3. The world No.89 Giorgi came back from a set and a break down, saved two match points and overcame 12 double-faults.

Our Jimmie48 attended three of the four quarterfinal matches, as well as the women’s doubles semifinal victory over Arantxa Rus and Tamara Zidansek over Alison Van Uytvanck and Greet Minnen. Jimmie48 is now off to Prague!