Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini battled a tough competitor, rain delays and a stadium change to defeat Magdalena Fr\u0119ch 6\u20132 6\u20132 in a late finishing second-round match at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n
The match, which began on Kia Arena before being completed at John Cain after rain suspended play, proved far tougher for Paolini than the scoreline suggested, with the Italian frequently cutting a frustrated figure despite her straight-sets win.<\/p>\n
The win should boost Paolini\u2019s confidence as she looks to better her previous best fourth-round showing in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Despite taking the first set 6\u20132, the Italian struggled on serve, saving nine break points before being broken when serving for the set at 5\u20132. She recovered immediately, breaking back to close out the opener.<\/p>\n
The second set opened with both players exchanging breaks before Paolini held serve, despite facing two further break points.<\/p>\n
The Italian broke again before finally enjoying a comfortable service game, holding to love for 4\u20131. The stubborn Fr\u0119ch refused to lie down, holding serve before breaking Paolini to claw the match back to 4\u20133.<\/p>\n
Paolini let her frustrations out on her team after missing a simple volley at the net, then recovered to take the decisive break with an exquisite backhand down the line.<\/p>\n
The Italian then held her nerve to seal the second set and the win, no doubt relieved to see the back of a tricky contest against a dogged opponent.<\/p>\n
Speaking on court after her win, Paolini praised Fr\u0119ch, as well as her vociferous Italian support.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was better here [on John Cain Arena] without the wind. She was a really tough opponent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to rest. The goal is always to stay focused on the next match. I always feel the love of the Italian community in Melbourne. Thank you for staying here to cheer for me, it\u2019s late. Grazie!\u201c<\/p>\n
Paolini will face the exciting American Iva Jovic, who the Italian defeated in last year\u2019s US Open,\u00a0in the third round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini battled a tough competitor, rain delays and a stadium change to defeat Magdalena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-421893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}