2011 French Open: Irina-Camelia Begu defeats Aravane Rezai in the opening round
World number 102 Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania took eighty six minutes to defeat Aravane Rezai of France in the first round of the French Open, being played at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France here on Monday.
The Romanian pro took down her French opponent in straight sets to ensure her berth in the second round of the tournament. The Romanian pro has definitely gained some much-needed momentum and will look to sustain it when she goes up against the world number fourteen Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia in the second round of the tournament.
The Romanian pro started the opener in a very aggressive manner and destroyed her estimable opponent with high degree of aggression. But she retreated from the aggression when the battle stiffened in the second set against Frenchwoman, who joined her superior power with efficient consistency to give the Romanian run for her money. However, the Romanian pro struggled hard and managed to come out on the winning side with 69 points in total.
The 20-year-old Romanian, who had planned to fight for every ball, entered the field with a lot of aggression and made her 24-year-old opponent run every corner. Begu scored 70 percent of first serve, while her French opponent lagged behind with a huge difference of 13 percent. Ruthless forehands and excellent shot selection with some good length were seen by both the players that tied the score at 3-3. Nevertheless, Begu converted 60 percent of breakpoints and managed to take the first set 6-3.
The French pro continuously battled for almost one hour and twenty six minutes against her Romanian opponent and was not willing to drop her serve either. Rezai faced a test of nerve as her opponent displayed some of her fine plays. Begu brilliantly raised the level of her game and converted three of five break points en route to straights sets victory. A final shot from Begu was all that was needed to leave the French pro stranded behind the baseline. In the end it was 6-3 to Begu, much to everyone’s amazement.
Begu will next play thirteenth seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round of the event later in the week.
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