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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 5, 2020


19-year-old Italian wild card Elisabetta Cocciaretto powered into her first WTA quarterfinal and notched her first Top 30 win on Wednesday at the Palermo Open.

The Italian, ranked 157, toppled Croatia’s Donna Vekic, 6-2, 6-4.

She was joined in the last eight by compatritr Sara Errani, who outlasted Kristyna Pliskova 3-6 6-4 6-3.

Cocciaretto, a former Australian Open Girls’ Singles semifinalist, reeled off six straight games from 2-2- in the first set to put herself in the driver’s set. The Italian is playing her fourth WTA main draw and has already notched her first two Top 100 wins this week in Palermo.


“When I was younger, I was watching this tournament on TV and watching Flavia [Pennetta] and [Sara] Errani, and I dreamed of playing this tournament for so many years,” she said. “And now I’m here and I’m one of the players playing on TV, like when I was young. It feels very great.”

Errani lost the first 13 points of the match but eventually found her footing against Pliskova at very familiar stomping grounds to reach her eighth career quarterfinal at Palermo.

The Italian is a two-time champion that has reached four career finals at Palermo. She won her titles in Palermo in 2008 and 2012.

France’s Fiona Ferro also recorded her first Top 30 win, 7-5, 6-2 over eighth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, while qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich pummeled Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-0 6-2.

 

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