2011 Open GDF Suez 2nd round: Mattek-Sands defeats local player Cohen-Aloro
American tennis player, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, scored a straight sets victory over local French player, Stephanie Cohen-Aloro, winning the match 7-5, 6-3. Mattek-Sands took one hour and fifty-one minutes to defeat Cohen-Aloro in the second round of the Open
GDF Suez.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands is one of the few American players left on the Women’s Tennis Association [WTA]. She is expected to boost her ranking by several spots within this month, and she has gotten herself off to a good start by winning five of her nine matches
so far.
She is a right handed player, who resides in Phoenix, Arizona at the moment. Currently world number 48, Mattek-Sands, is also a Fed Cup player, who recently participated in the quarterfinals against Belgium. She took a thrashing from Belgian tennis pro Yanina
Wickmayer, losing the first Fed Cup tie in straight sets.
Mattek-Sands has been playing professional tennis since 1999, and she is now 25 years old. She has won no career titles to date, but is considered to have potential. She has won five ITF tournaments, and qualified as a finalist for the WTA Tour tournaments.
Her most recent significant achievement was reaching the title match of the 2011 Hobart tournament in January.
Stephanie Cohen-Aloro is currently world number 188, and she resides in Seine, France. The 27 year old player joined the professional WTA circuit in 2001, but has yet to win her first career title. However, she has scored victories at six ITF tournaments,
most recently in 2009.
Cohen-Aloro qualified for the Open GDF Suez as a lucky loser, she lost the final of the qualifying round, but was admitted to the main draw due to Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal from the tournament on health grounds.
The match seemed to be up for grabs in the first set, as both players battled into a tie-breaker. Mattek-Sands, who saved four break points, managed to take the opening set. The fight seemed to go out of Cohen-Aloro in the second set, and her attempts at
defeating the American player were not up to par. It was an easy victory for Mattek-Sands, as she took the set 6-3.
Mattek-Sands and Cohen-Aloro have competed against each other once before, when they encountered each other at the 2007 Australian Open. They met in the round of the last 32 in the qualifying draw. At this time, Mattek-Sands was rated world number 125, she
was also the thirteenth seed at the draw.
Cohen Aloro, ranked number 160, defeated Mattek-Sands 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Therefore, their head to head is now 1-1.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands has qualified for the quarterfinals of the French event with this victory, and she will be facing German sixth seed, Andrea Petkovic, in the upcoming round. Petkovic defeated Slovakian tennis pro, Kristina Kucova, in straight sets 6-4,
6-2 to qualify for this round.
Petkovic is expected to score a straight sets victory over Mattek-Sands to proceed to the semi-finals of the event.
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