Kontaveit dominates, Ferro survives en route to Palermo Open Finals

The Palermo Open Semifinals finished up today. Top seed Petra Martic suffered a huge defeat and Fiona Ferro escaped fan-favorite Giorgi en route to the finals.

Semifinal #1: (4) Anett Kontaveit def. (1) Petra Martic 6-2, 6-4

This was nothing more than pure domination from Kontaveit. While Petra Martic was dealing with issues in her right leg throughout the entire match (to the point of leaving the court during the second set), Kontaveit still put on a fabulous showing to put herself into the finals.

Martic mustered only one break point opportunity throughout the entire first set and quickly lost it after a Kontaveit winner. On the other hand, the #4 seed went 2-4 on break point chances, including her final chance to take the set. Despite the 6-2 score, Martic played solid on her serve. She went 69% on her first serve and won 10-18 points. Where she struggled, however, was on the return. She won only 35.5% of all return points in the second set and a paltry 27.8% on Kontaveit’s first serve (5-18).

That was key down the stretch for Kontaveit, who was able to fend off Martic’s only break point chance at 4-2. She took control of the set from there, emerging out of a tight game with the set, 6-2.

The second set was arguably less competitive than the first, apart from a slight Martic run at the end. She started off well, however, breaking Kontaveit to open the set on her third chance. She, unfortunately, gave her lead right back as she was quickly broken. Kontaveit got her groove back, saving a break point during the next game to hold for 2-1 and ripped through the Martic serve before overpowering her opponent with her own in two consecutive games to stretch the lead to 4-1.

Three holds in succession by the pair, bookended by Martic, gave her some confidence as the match got to 5-3 in the second. Kontaveit had the opportunity to serve out the match but began to unravel. At 15-all, she missed an easy overhead smash and allowed Martic to break with yet another miss. Martic looked ready to go but took a medical timeout right after the game due to her right leg. Martic came back clearly not anywhere close to 100%. She double-faulted at love-30 to give Kontaveit three match points and could barely bend to hack the ball back at love-40. She pushed a forehand long to lost the match.

It likely would’ve been a completely different match if Martic was at 100%. Her serve imploded in the second set with three double faults and a 46.2% first-serve percentage. She was definitely the favorite going into the match after yesterday’s victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich bur simply couldn’t get it done today.

Kontaveit powered through to the finals and will have a chance to win her first title since her maiden title at the 2017 Ricoh Open.

Semifinal #2: Fiona Ferro def. Camilla Giorgi 2-6, 6-2, 7-5

Giorgi came out firing at her opponent, jumping to a 5-0 start before Ferro gained any true momentum. at 0-3, Ferro had three chances to hold serve but simply couldn’t get past the groundstroke clinic that Giorgi was putting on.

The Frenchwoman saved a break point before losing the second to further put herself in the hole. She had yet another shot to get herself back in the match with three break chances in the following game but failed to convert any of the three. She finally held for the first time in the match and followed it up with a solid break of serve. Her momentum was quickly tarnished with a hold at love to take the first set. Giorgi’s power was too much for her to handle as she won only 3 points on her opponent’s serve throughout the entire match.

Whatever the problem was in the opening set, Ferro did the exact opposite in the second. She put on a serving clinic as she missed only 6 first serves (30-36) throughout the 6-2 thrashing of Giorgi; she saved two of three break points, as well.

Giorgi also struggled to win points off of her powerful first serve (winning 8-of-20 in the second) despite doing so in the first half-hour of the match. She committed four double faults on her way to only one hold of serve (at love-2). The momentum had completely shifted in favor of Ferro. Giorgi’s game has been historically streaky, especially over the last week of play. The match was going to be a great one if she could somehow turn it around.

That she did. The pair’s serves both caught fire at the same time, with Ferro being the only one to break in the first nine games of the final set. Receiving at 4-5, Giorgi needed to come up with a clutch break to stay in the match. She raced out to a double break opportunity and converted on her second, bringing the match to 5-all. Giorgi’s hot streak came to an end after the break; she was broken right back after a fabulous quick game by Ferro. Ferro got to 40-love before winning the match on her second attempt.

Giorgi has been the fan-favorite this week as her missile-like groundstrokes wowed the crowd. She put up a good fight but it was ultimately Fiona Ferro who came out on top.

The win for Ferro extended her win streak to 16 consecutive match wins dating back to the beginning of last month. She’ll have to put on her best showing to take down the 4th-seeded Kontaveit in tomorrow’s final.

The Palermo Ladies Open Final begins tomorrow at 7:30 PM CEST (1:30 PM EST).