2011 Brisbane International: Marion Bartoli confirms her spot in the semi-final round
The 26-year-old Marion Bartoli won her quarterfinal match of the 2011 Brisbane International Women’s singles tournament on Thursday after getting the better of Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of Czech Republic in two sets. The final
match score was 6-2, 6-1. The match was stretched to a time period of eighty seven minutes.
"It is part of my game to be aggressive on the return of serve and today I thought I would do the same again against Barbora because she is such a great runner and she does like long rallies. So I needed to take control early and
to be aggressive. I was really happy with the way I played,” said Bartoli after her victory.
World number sixteen, as a result of this victory, has also made her way into the semi-final round. The Frenchwoman played some impressive tennis right from the start and did not falter at any stage of the game and thus emerged
victorious in the end.
Her semi-final opponent will be either Andrea Petkovic of Germany or Jarmila Groth from Australia.
After losing her opening service game, Bartoli did well to bounce back within no time in the first set and afterwards made it a one sided affair till the end. She outclassed Barbora with the help of her strong ground strokes and
aggressive style of play.
The 26-year-old, who made her debut on the WTA tour back in 2000, punished her opponent particularly with her devilish serve apart from her excellent movement on the court.
Barbora, who is currently ranked number 69 in the South African Airways WTA list, looked simply helpless and thus couldn’t win more than 42% points on her first serve. The trend continued in the decisive set as well as the Czech
player managed to take only 29 % points of her second serve on Thursday.
While commenting on the conditions in Brisbane, the French player added, "The conditions out there were very heavy, the balls were getting really heavy and it was hard to get rhythm today especially from the back of the court.
The conditions the other day were a lot faster but today I had to work a lot harder to get into the point and get my rhythm.''
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