WTA Shenzhen: Maria Sharapova and Aryna Sabalenka make winning start
The 5th seed Maria Sharapova has made the winning start of the season, defeating Timea Bacsinszky 6-2, 7-6 in an hour and 42 minutes in front of the crowd that was giving her huge support from start to finish. Sharapova served at 73% and despite a shaky performance in the second set she managed to seal the deal in straight sets and avoid spending more time on the court. Bacsinszky converted all four break points she earned but that wasn't enough at least for a set, losing more than 50% of the points behind her initial shot and suffering six breaks from 10 break chances she offered to the Russian.
Despite missing some routine forehands, Sharapova looked sharp on serve and on the return as well, hitting more than 20 winners and keeping the points on her racquet all the time. The Swiss scored an instant break in the second game after a poor forehand from Maria who broke back in the very next game after a double fault from Timea. The Russian never looked back, winning 20 of the next 25 points to take all the remaining games and secure the opener by 6-2 after a service winner in game eight. They traded four straight breaks in the first part of the second set before Bacsinszky grabbed another one in game eight when Sharapova netted a backhand to move 5-3 up.
Serving for the set in the following game, the Swiss got broken after a loose forehand and that sent the momentum to the other side of the net, with Sharapova winning the tie break 73 after a service winner to secure the place in the second round. The top seed Aryna Sabalenka had to dig deep to overcome the first round obstacle and stay in the tournament, beating Tatjana Maria 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 49 minutes to join Sharapova in the last 16. The German led 6-3, 3-0 when Sabalenka started to forge her comeback, winning 12 of the last 13 games to march towards the finish line!
Aryna struggled to find her rhythm, making too many errors and playing with no clue how to defend her second serve, getting broken twice at the start of both the first and second set to stand on the verge of defeat. Tatjana held the strings of the match in her hands tight but she couldn't make one extra push and bring it home, losing 24 out of last 30 points in set number two and 10 games overall when Sabalenka moved 4-0 up in the third. The Belarusian clinched the win with another break in game seven, happy with the way she performed in the second part of the encounter and hoping for more of the same in the rest of the event.
The promising Serb Ivana Jorovic stunned the 2nd seed Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-2 in an hour and 30 minutes despite the fact she hit 11 double faults! Caroline grabbed three breaks but that was never enough after a terrible performance on serve, dropping 55% of the points behind her initial shot and offering Ivana 13 break points. Jorovic converted six of those to control the scoreboard all the time for one of the best wins of her young career. They traded breaks at the start of the match and Garcia handed her service game again at 2-3, falling 5-2 behind before pulling the break back in game nine to prolong the set.
The 10th game proved to be the longest of the match and Jorovic converted her fifth set point for a 6-4, gaining the confidence before set number two where she scored three breaks to sprint over the finish line and book the place in the last 16.
First round results:
[1]Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) vs Tatjana Maria (GER) 3-6 6-3 6-1 Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) vs Dalila Jakupovic (SLO) 6-3 6-4 [WC]Xinyu Wang (CHN) vs [Q]Fang Ying Xun (CHN) 7-6(3) 6-4 [5]Maria Sharapova (RUS) vs Timea Bacsinszky (SUI) 6-2 7-6(3) Ons Jabeur (TUN) vs [7]Shuai Zhang (CHN) 6-2 6-3 Alison Riske (USA) vs [3]Qiang Wang (CHN) 6-3 6-3 [Q]Veronika Kudermetova (RUS) vs Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) 3-6 6-1 7-6(5) [Q]Ivana Jorovic (SRB) vs [2]Caroline Garcia (FRA) 6-4 6-2
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2EY9mcG
No comments