Elisabetta Cocciaretto doesn’t stop and eliminates another former Slam champion from the WTA 250 in Birmingham. The girl from the Marche, in fact, goes to the quarter-finals beating the American 6-4 6-2 Sloane Stephens, after having ousted the number 1 seeding, the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. Now for her one of the Russian ones Diana Shnaider and the Czech Marie Bouzkova (2-0 and 1-0, respectively, in the previous matches).
The first game immediately saw Cocciaretto showing incisiveness even finding the break point, only for Stephens to cancel it first and then get one himself in the next game. The result is that the American breaks the serve at 30 by means of a forehand from the Marche player which remains in the middle of the net. The thirty-one year old from Florida is more convinced in these phases, but, at 4-1 in her favour, she is unable to complete a very long sixth game in which she has three balls to make it 5-1. From then on there is only Cocciaretto: conviction, cross-court forehand to score the counterbreak and much more confidence. At 4-4 Stephens does everything, breaking alone with a series of free throws that launch the blue towards what, shortly after, becomes 6-4.
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After a few games all in all without any particular worries for one or the other player, the player from the Marche, still driven by the important confidence she possesses, manages to find a way to take the serve away from Stephens once again: she does it in the fifth game, at 2-2, at 15. For the Marche player, the ability to never or almost never grant control of the exchange to her opponent is always important. And, at 4-2, another chance arrives to (almost) close the matter, but the forehand ends up long. A second break point also goes away, but Cocciaretto finds a great backhand cross passer who offers her the third opportunity. This time he succeeds, with the short ball enough to send Stephens out of gear: 5-2. After a few more minutes the conclusion arrives and the quarterfinals are reached.
Net of the lower number of firsts on the pitch (59.6%-75.5% the percentage in favor of the USA), for Cocciaretto there is consistency with the points won on the first (70.6%) to count, and even more so on the second: the figure of 69.6% is worth mentioning.
