2011 French Open: Tsvetana Pironkova thrashes out Casey Dellacqua to reach the second round
Thirty second seed Tsvetana Pironkova defeated Australian tennis-pro Casey Dellacqua in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 here on Sunday to book her place in the second round of 2011 French Open tennis tournament. Pironkova adopted an aggressive strategy and took only 1 hour and 27 minutes to floor her opponent.
The Bulgarian tennis star made an emphatic start to the match as she broke the serve early in the opening set to gain the crucial psychological advantage against her rival. She smashed controlled forehand and backhand winners all over the court and made Dellacqua’s game play look completely ineffective. Dellacqua bounced back well with some high quality tennis however three serve breaks in the set gave Pironkova an added advantage as she clinched the opener 7-5.
The second set was also expected to be a tight one but Pironkova raised the level of her game play and broke the serve twice to establish complete control over the contest. She played in a lovely drop shot to set up two match points for her and then converted the very first one to seal the contest.
Pironkova’s accurate and on-target serves proved to be the main difference between the two players at the end of the day as she achieved an impressive 80 per cent first serve conversion. She also dominated the challenger in serve return department of the game by claiming 50 per cent of the points. However the Bulgarian struggled to convert most of the break chances, an aspect of her game, which she must work on to yield positive results against other top seeded players at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament.
In contrast Dellacqua struggled to time the ball and committed a whopping 38 unforced errors in the match as compared to only 17 made by her opponent. She looked in good touch initially but as the match progressed her shine faded away. It will not be wrong to say that loss in concentration resulted in a disaster for her.
The running season has proved to be quite a disappointing one for Pironkova. She experienced first round losses at several WTA tournaments. BNP Paribas Open, Sony Ericsson Open, Barcelona, Madrid and Rome have all resulted in a failure for her. She will be hoping to restore some of the lost pride with a solid performance here at Roland Garros.
In her next match-up at the Grand Slam tournament, Tsvetana will take on Gisela Dulko who thrashed out Irina Falconi of United States in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. The Argentine is in great form and can cause serious problems for Tsvetana.
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