Elisabetta Cocciaretto: a lovely girl
I wasn’t sure if to write also the English version of this article, as it is mostly focused on an Italian player on whom I wrote also during the last Australian Open, a.k.a. Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Nevertheless, considering that Elisabetta ranks within top 15 and played today the semis in the Italian Open against Luxemburgish Eleonora Molinaro, I thought that the report could have been of some interest also to foreign readers.
Cocciaretto definitely owns me a dinner. She forced me to stay for over two hours in the central court, which is beautiful, but the stands are made of concrete. In a sunny day as today was, temperatures in there raise up to, give or take, 8000 degrees. And, eventually, Cocciaretto has even lost; now I tell you how.
Honestly speaking, I thought Molinaro was the favourite today: a few weeks ago she has already beaten Cocciaretto in a grade 1 by 6-4 6-4; and, more important, the Luxemburgish, who is one year older than the Italian, but two years more experienced (Cocciaretto missed basically 1 year on the tour due to problems to her back), currently seems to me a more complete player. Anyway, the match was predicted to be interesting: Molinaro is more solid and regular, Cocciaretto is possibly a bit more classy and fore sure she owns a more various game. Two beautiful backhands were opposing, but also two forehands with some issues: from time to time Molinaro tends to hit her forehand with her weight backwards, whilst Cocciaretto’s swing is a bit weird and it can happen that her arm becomes a rigid when she hits: in some respects her forehand reminds me a bit Anisimova’s (but the American’s one is better).
The Italian girl managed to prove my prediction right and wrong at the same time, which was not easy to do. She proved me wrong since, overall, it’s her who was in control of the match and she played a better tennis than her opponent (who didn’t play very well, to be honest). She proved me right as she lost a match which has been in her hands for three times: in my view the final score (and, in particular, the outcome of the final tie break) was also determined also by Molinaro’s higher experience, as the Luxemburgish has already won a couple of 15k on the pro tour and was a finalist in a 25k, having been beaten in 3 tight sets by Fiona Ferro.
In the first part of the match Cocciaretto was playing very well; she immediately put pressure on her opponent, forcing her to save many break points already in her first service game. The break was only delayed, as soon after Cocciaretto managed to take a 4-1 lead, taking also advantage of Molinaro’s tennis, which was much faultier than in previous days. You can add to the above some fantastic backhands by Cocciaretto and in little time the Italian gained two break points for a 5-1 lead.
Then the match suddenly changed: Cocciaretto became affected by a mysterious infective illness which irreparably compromises anyone’s forehand and that I spread around: in the last few days I’ve also infected Gracheva, actually. In short time the 4-1 lead became a 5-4 leaed. Cocciaretto at this stage had two set points, but she wasn’t able to convert them; she served again for the set on 6-5 on her favour, but nothing, there was not a single chance that she could hit the simplest forehand in. The tie-break wasn’t even played by the Italian; or better, let’s try to forget about it. She went down 1-5 and lost it by 3-7.
Molinaro immediately took a 1-0 lead in the second set. If not under pressure, the girl usually becomes unplayable and I was convinced the Luxemburgish would have grabbed the second set by 6-1; I was also presuming that Cocciaretto, having thrown away a set that she dominated for most of the time, would have been mentally shattered. But I was wrong: the always smiling Italian girl took a 2-1 lead before her forehand left her gain and Molinaro managed to equalise. Nevertheless, also due to the cooperation of Molinaro’s poor game –her too was in troubles throughout the match in handling pressure – Cocciaretto won the second set by 6-2 and took a 2-0 lead in the third one. Molinaro managed to grab a game, but shortly after Cocciaretto consolidated her lead to 4-1 and had an opportunity to further stretch it to 5-1. Though, the generous Italian wanted to bis: the forehand’s illness showed up again and, for a second time, the 4-1 lead became a 5-5.
The tie break was a game at who was hitting the slowest shot: from a few games earlier both girls were highly affected by pressure and both of them were playing really bad. Cocciaretto took a 4-1 lead, but her illness proved to be unstoppable and she lost by 7-4, hitting every forehand everywhere but in the court; Cocciaretto managed thus to lose a match which she has been controlling for most of the time and during which she played a better tennis than her opponent.
Pity: but this loss cannot hide the fact that Cocciaretto is a good player, as Molinaro is. Cocciaretto owns a superb backhand, a tender hand, volleying skills and she is imaginative. Her forehand will never be her best shot and she needs to improve it. In particular, today, she several times demonstrated that when she is under pressure this shot becomes really shaky. Molinaro too was affected by tension, but she has been able to somehow hit the ball in the court; instead, in the decisive moments, Cocciaretto hit more winners, but also many more unforced.
In the other semi-final, quite surprisingly, Juki Naito managed to beat the Danish Tauson in three sets. I couldn’t see a single shot of this match as it was played contextually with Cocciaretto’s.
Usually, I also attend one boys’ semi-final; I am sorry that this time I didn’t manage to, as the heat was so high that the only idea of spending more time under the sun killed me. Anyway, the final will be Baez vs. Andreev and this I will try to attend (if I don’t get roasted again before it even starts).
