Arruabarrena-Vecino Outlasts Vinci

Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino outdid Roberta Vinci on Sunday for her first Top 20 win. The road only gets tougher, though, as next up for the Spaniard will be World No.3 Maria Sharapova.

Published March 10, 2013 12:00

Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino

INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA - Spanish rising star Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino pulled off a career-first at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday, outlasting Roberta Vinci in three sets for her first Top 20 win.
Watch live tennis from Indian Wells on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!
Though she had taken out No.22 seed Varvara Lepchenko in the previous round, Arruabarrena-Vecino's run seemed to be coming to a close as the No.14-seeded Vinci cruised through the opening set in just 27 minutes; but Arruabarrena-Vecino stayed even with her through 4-all in each of the next two sets and pulled away just enough each time, eventually emerging with a 26 64 64 victory.
Arruabarrena-Vecino was 0-4 against Top 20 players going into the match, all four losses in straight sets and barely winning any games either - she won a total of 11 games in four matches against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic and Angelique Kerber. That all changed.
The road only gets tougher, though - next up for Arruabarrena-Vecino is No.2 seed Maria Sharapova.