Camila Giorgi again won an important victory to start the effort to defend the Canadian Open (Rogers Cup) title in Toronto 2022 season.
The world number 29 beat ninth seed Emma Raducanu 7-6, 6-2 for her 16th win over a top 10 player and her seventh straight Canadian Open win in 12 months.
Last season when the Canadian Open women’s singles was held in Montreal, the Italian bagged the biggest title of her career to date with six wins, including defeating the likes of Elise Mertens, Petra Kvitova, Cori Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Karolina Pliskova.
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The unseeded tennis player’s victory over Czech Pliskova in last season’s Canadian Open final was her last win at the WTA level 1000 tournament before defeating British tennis player Raducanu. He has not played Masters 1000 tournaments this season in Doha, Indian Wells or Miami, and lost in the first round of Masters 1000 tournaments held in Madrid and Rome.
The 30-year-old is one of the specialists in hard-court tournaments. Eight of the 16 victories he has won against top 10 players he has won in hard-court tournaments and two of the three titles he has bagged he has also won in those tournaments. In addition, he has now won seven of his last nine matches against a top 10 player after losing his previous seven against a player in that ranking.
“It was an amazing match. It’s always a pleasure to come back here, to Canada. I’m very happy to play here,” said Giorgi, who finished the match in 1 hour 49 minutes.
Left with three break opportunities in the opening set, the Italian came back after failing to convert a set point opportunity in the 12th game by not dropping points in the tiebreak.
In the second set, he trailed 0-2, only to snatch six games in a row before converting a third match point opportunity.
Throughout the match, Camila Giorgi produced 31 winners and made 31 unforced errors, in contrast to Raducanu who only produced three winners and made nine unforced errors.
Belgian tennis player Mertens was against Giorgi in the first round of last season’s Canadian Open. This season they will meet in the second round after Mertens defeated Hungarian tennis player Anna Bondar 7-6, 6-1.
Giorgi’s 6-3, 7-5 win last season in the Canadian Open’s first round was the player’s first win over Mertens in three attempts.
