PETE ZIEBRON in CINCINNATI
Camila Giorgi on her way to the 3rd round of the Western & Southern Open. Pete Ziebron Images
Camila Giorgi continued her impressive run at the Western & Southern Open on Wednesday with a 7-6(1) 5-7 6-3 victory over world #26 Daria Gavrilova of Australia. Including qualifying matches, the win was the fourth consecutive for the 25 year-old Italian.
Since April, Giorgi has defeated several top WTA players, including: #3 Karolina Pliskova in Prague, #15 Elena Vesnina in Strasbourg, #5 Elina Svitolina in Birmingham and #18 Madison Keys at Wimbledon. Ironically, she will play Pliskova again today in Cincinnati for a place in the quarterfinals. Pliskova is currently world # 1 and the defending Champion in Cincinnati.
Not a single game in the opening set against Gavrilova went to deuce. Giorgi was broken to begin the match and each player held serve in each of the next four games until the Aussie served for the set at 5-4. The Italian was able to break at 15 and square the set at 5-all. After each player held serve, Camila Giorgi would win the final 6 points of the opening set tiebreaker to win it 7-1 and take the set.
Midway through the opening set, Camila Giorgi was swinging freely and solidly connecting on forehands. Gavrilova did well to defend the barrage of heavy shots but gradually the power game of Giorgi continued to pay dividends, especially in the final set.
In seven of the twelve games in the second set, the server was broken. Giorgi's momentum continued early on as she recorded the first break of the set but was not able to consolidate. Gavrilova held and then broke again for a 3-1 lead. Three more breaks followed in the next six games and Giorgi was broken when serving at 5-6, denying the overflow crowd on Court 11 of another tiebreaker.
The beginning of the final set resembled the beginning of the previous set as each player was broken in their opening service game. Gavrilova then had to dig deep as she recovered from a 0-40 start in the third game and won five consecutive points to take a 2-1 lead. However the Aussie would manage to win just one more game in the match as Giorgi broke in the fifth game and again in the ninth game of the set to eventually prevail 6-3 in the final set.
Despite the fact that Gavrilova was a perfect 6-6 in break point conversions, she was not able to get the win. Sitting very close to Gavrilova's camp, I was able to see the frustration from Gavrilova and at one point in the final set she said to her camp "She just crushes it." referring to Giorgi's all out style of play.
The match lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes and was played in warm weather with high humidity, very typical of conditions in southern Ohio in mid-August.
In her last three matches, Camila Giorgi has defeated 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist and world #33 Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, world #42 Katerina Siniakova of Czech Republic and world #26 Daria Gavrilova of Australia. Giorgi's current form and apparent upward trajectory will be on display against world #1 Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic today on Court 3 in Cincinnati.
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