2011 French Open: Shuai Peng defeats Tamira Paszek to reach the second round
Chinese tennis star Shuai Peng eased past Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-3, 6-2 to book her place in the second round of 2011 French Open in Paris. Peng has been in terrific form over the last few weeks and reached the finals at Brussels
just a few days ago where she lost to world number one Caroline Wozniacki. She continued her great run on the clay surface as she took only 1 hour and 18 minutes to floor her opponent on Monday.
Peng made a very bright start to the contest and asserted dominance over her opponent with her strong and aggressive play. She had no trouble holding on to her serve games as she served ferociously and with purpose. She then made
the crucial serve break with a brilliant forehand winner down the line to strengthen her position in the match. She also used her close to the net strategy very effectively and won four out four net points against the challenger.
Paszek showed great temperament in the set as she put up a good fight but a large number of unforced errors in the set always meant that she would need a miracle to break her opponent.
Peng continued to pressurise her opponent with top quality tennis in the second set as well. She broke the serve two times in the set to earn in impassable game score lead. Converting a long rally in her favour, Peng, set up three
match points for her in the eight game of the set. She then played in a clever chip shot to end the match in straight sets.
Paszek hesitated to take the initiatives throughout the match. It seemed as if she waited for things to happen where as Peng made excellent moves on the court and made things work for her. Her first serve conversion was an impressive
66 per cent while she secured 45 percent of the points on her opponent’s service games. Ranked 25 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Peng stuck to her strengths and she created all sorts of problems for her opponent with her strong ground strokes.
The 25-year-old Chinese has been in stunning form since the start of this season. At her first WTA tournament of the year, at Auckland, she made it to the semi-final. At the Australian Open she surprised critics by reaching the
fourth round. Peng continued her impressive run on the WTA tour and rose in the world rankings to world number 25 following her consistent performances. She will be hoping to become the first Chinese player ever to lift a Grand Slam trophy here at Roland Garros.
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