2011 Cellular South Cup round 1:Magdalena Rybarikova defeats Vania King
World Number 105 Magdalena Rybarikova managed to oust American pro Vania King in three gruelling sets, winning the match 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(9). It took Rybarikova over an hour and forty-two minutes to defeat her opponent, who fought long and hard to take a lead.
It seemed as if the 2011 Cellular South Cup was a perfect playing field for lower-ranked players to overtake their superior opponents. Earlier in the day, World Number 288, Alexa Glatch crushed Number 234 Beatrice Capra in straight sets, demolishing the
player 6-2, 6-0. Rybarikova followed suit with her defeat of King. The Slovakian pro is World Number 105, around twenty spots behind Number 86, Vania King. The match started off with a 6-1 victory for Rybarikova, and it seemed as if the match would be a short
one. However, King seemed to regain some of her determination in the second set, and she battled back to throw her opponent off by winning the set 6-3. She won 43 of a total of 76 points in this set, making a percentage of 57. The tie-breaker was by far the
most competitive round of this match; both players reached match point again and again only to be thwarted by their opponent, until Rybarikova ended the match at 7-6(9). All in all, this was the closest challenge yet played at the Cellular South Cup.
The two players are both 22 years old, and right-handed. Rybarikova turned pro in 2005, one year before King. Rybarikova has played eight matches so far this year, five of them. Vania has played nine matches, scoring five victories in the process. Both players
have also won a single Women’s Tennis Association [WTA] title apiece.
Rybarikova scored her first career title in 2009, when she won the title in Birmingham. She took part in the Moorilla Hobart International tournament earlier this year, but fell in the first round. She also took part in the 2011 Australian Open, and was
defeated in the first set by Estonian pro Kaia Kanepi.
King’s first and only career title was in 2006, when she won the Bangkok event. She participated in the Brisbane International in early January this year, but was defeated in the first round by French fourth seed, Marion Bartoli. She also took part in the
Australian Open, where she made it to the second round of the tournament before being defeated by former World Number 1 Caroline Wozniacki.
This victory brings their head to head record to 2-0 for Rybarikova, who defeated King in 2008 at the Monterrey quarter-finals in straight sets. She will face either Canadian pro Aleksandra Wozniak or Anne Keothavong of Britain in the second round of the
Cellular South Cup.
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