Camila Giorgi, the 23-year-old who won her maiden title earlier this grass season in Rosmalen, currently ranked thirty-second in the world, faced today Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena for the first time, trying to return to the third round of Wimbledon – site of her breakthrough campaign as a pro, a fourth round finish in 2012.
And she was determined to do it. The first set was a display of dominance from the Italian, who mercilessly bageled her opponent in only 18 minutes. To start off, Giorgi won the first two games of the match without losing a single point. She then fought off a deuce situation to hold for 3/0, broke to 15 for her fourth game of the day, held to love and fired a forehand winner up 30-40 on the Spaniard’s serve to clinch the 6/0 score and the set.
In the second set, however, Arruabarrena came to play and prove this was not going to be a one-sided affair. The world No. 85 broke the Italian right away, as Giorgi played a sluggish game filled with unforced errors. Her advantage did not last long, however, as the seeded player broke right back. Both women would go on and break their foes one more time, but as the tie persisted after 12 games (Camila squandered three match points in the 10th game), a tie-breaker was needed to decide the set. And then, it was decided in the details. As a matter of fact, detail: Lara Arruabarrena’s first service point, when a forehand unforced error gifted the mini-break to her opponent, in which ended up being the only time the returners prevailed over servers in the decider. Nine points later, Giorgi held another match point, up 6-5, and a forehand forced error that was no good sealed the deal.
After the 6/0, 7/6 (7-5) win, the 31st seeded Italian advances to face fifth seeded Caroline Wozniacki in the third round. Giorgi has the edge on their head-to-head, as she leads the former world number one 2-1.