Roberta Vinci was one of the seeds who had the trickiest draws as the Wimbledon Championships began. Starting up against Alison Riske on grass and in her current form would not be ideal for anyone. Actually, many thought that a victory for the Italian would be even more unexpected than the on-paper upset. However, Vinci proved once again that she is not one to doubt. Despite the fact that she got to play against an opponent that excels on grass, the world number seven seemed unbothered and managed to overcome the opening hurdle in a thrilling three-set match.
Roberta Vinci races through the opening set
As soon as the match started the Italian showed her aggressive tensions. After holding to lead in the first game, she pushed her opponent in her service game, earning herself three break points and eventually breaking in the third one on a double fault by her counterpart for 2-0. Riske, though, was not done yet. Although Vinci had two points to lead 3-0, she found some immense returns and managed to break the Italian's serve and then hold on her own to tie. But Vinci did not panic. She continued to serve consistently well and she found some amazing defensive shots, which accompanied her perfectly executed clever game. During the next games, she kept Riske completely trapped in her web and like this, she did not drop another game en route to closing the set.
A major problem for Riske was her lack of consistency. She hit a lot of errors and many double faults, especially in the final games. Vinci, from the other side, executed her game plan to its maximum. By hitting a lot to the American's backhand, she pushed her on that side and then she was able to open the court and seize the points.
Riske comes back from a break down to force a decider
At the start of the second part of the match, the Italian continued from where the first set ended and held to love to lead 1-0. Quickly, Riske held her grip in a deuce game to tie. The two players exchanged another couple of holds with Vinci succumbing to some forehand errors, but still remaining solid on her serve. As a matter of fact, she held for 3-2 and then went on to break on her second break point to lead 6-2, 4-2 and get two games away from the match.
Even though the Italian was holding firm and doing well with pressuring her counterpart's backhand, errors came to her game and Riske broke back. The American jumped at the chance and stayed solid as a rock on her serve to get back to four-all. At this point, the match started getting nerve-wracking. Both of them held for 5 all in really tight games, but with their serves helping them out. In the end, the American would be the first to take the crucial break with some great inspiration in that game. Subsequently, she held on her second set point, as Vinci saved the first with a great passing shot, and closed the set 7-5 bringing new interest in the encounter.
The key for the American was that Vinci stepped back a bit in the end and let her play her game with ease. The Italian helped with some errors when she was up as well, maybe because she hurried up to close it.
Vinci battles past a hard fought decider to proceed in the second round
Vinci commenced the third set by holding again, but Riske quickly responded for 1-all and it was evident that the momentum was on her side. In the next game, she broke the Italian's serve and held once again to lead 3-1 in the final set. Vinci was trying to be more aggressive, but she fell into the trap of impatience and committed errors. Moreover, that did not help her game style to thrive.
Anyway, you should never count a 33-year-old top ten player out. If Vinci has one strong metal weapon, that is her experience. Taking the match point by point and improving steadily, starting from the serve, she managed to drag the errors away from her opponent again. Thus, she went on to not lose another game, despite having some trouble to serve the match out. On her fourth match point, Vinci managed to seal the deal and progress in the second round of the Championships. It was a much-needed win for the number six seed and a hard-fought one. Especially, in the final game she flirted with bringing the American back to the match as she lost her serve rhythm for a while.
By numbers
The numbers imply that it was a messy match, but it was a quite entertaining encounter. Vinci had three more winners in the end, 22 to 19, while they had the same amount of unforced errors with 33. Though, this was not the kind of match to be decided by this stat. Both players were looking to force the error from their opponent, especially Vinci who uses match iQ a lot as a weapon. Another key stat is that the Italian was more consistent and solid behind her first serve that helped her win easy points.
What really mattered in the end was the US Open runner-up's experience and ability to step up when it was needed, while her counterpart got tired and started producing errors.
Next opponent for the number six seed is Ying-Ying Duan, who won in another tough three-setter against Kristyna Pliskova.