Cocciaretto continues Italian renaissance

Italy started off on the right foot the play-off clash with Romania. In Cluj Napoca, Irina Bara made her debut for the Romanian team, but it wasn't the best day for the 26 years old.

Previously, Bara was nominated for Romania's 2020 Qualifiers tie against Russia but did not play a match. From the position of the best ranked player in the Romanian team, captained for the very first time by Monica Niculescu. Monica is just one of two active players captain of the national team. The other is Yaroslava Shvedova, from Kazakhstan.

The match begun with 3 holds of serve and Cocciaretto was the one to make the first break. It happened in the forth game, at the fifth chance appeared on Bara's serve.

From that moment, the Italian never looked back taking the set 6-1.

Cutting off the unforced errors, Irina Bara had a better start of the second set. After 15 minutes, the Romanian secured a 3-0 lead, but it wasn't enough.

Cocciaretto kept on dictating the game from the baseline and she signed off a great comeback. Elisabetta lost only one of the following seven games and secured the victory in two sets: 6-1, 6-4.

Italy took the lead in the play-off and aims a 2-0 lead after the first day. The second match of the day will see Mihaela Buzarnescu take on Martina Trevisan. The Romanian won their sole previous encounter, on clay, in 2017 with a 6-4, 6-3 victory.