Elisabetta Cocciaretto struggles, but it’s not enough: out in the quarters in Rabat

A bitter elimination, after two extremely balanced sets.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto leaves the WTA 250 tournament in Rabat in the quarterfinals, where to beat her è Kamilla Rakhimova at the end of almost two hours of battle and two extremely hard-fought sets: 7-5, 7-5 the final, not without regrets for a match that on several occasions gave the feeling that it could be recovered. Particularly in the second set.

The first had instead opened in the worst way for Cocciaretto, who well caught conceded 3-0 to her opponent. The Italian tried to get back into the match by finding the break that earned her a 4-5 lead and then equalizing the score when her service turn came. It all came to naught forò in the 12th game, when Rakhimova got another break that won her the set.

The'magnitude of the battle then emerges early in the second set, with the two opponents snatching each other’s service in the first two games. Cocciaretto packs an overtake by taking a 3-2 lead, but again the counterbreak è immediate. Rakhimova makes no more mistakes and in fact she sees her first match point cancelled already in the tenth game. Then she finally closes the score on 7-5.

Cocciaretto had defeated Moroccan Yasmine Kabbaj in her debut in Rabat, repeating herself in the second round by defeating Japanese Zhuoxuan Bai: 6-4 6-2 in that case the final score in favor of the Ancona native.