Abigail Spears defeats Chanelle Scheepers; breezes into the second round at Brussels Ladies Open
American qualifier Abigail Spears dumped South African Chanelle Scheepers with a breadstick at 2011 Open de Bruxelles, a red clay court tournament held in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday. She registered a 6-3, 6-1 victory over the
27-year-old South African to advance into the second round at the event.
World number 396, Spears triumphed over world number 67 South African in seventy-one minutes for the first time in their third meeting. They last faced each other at Portugal two years ago where Scheepers was victorious in straight
sets. However, after this success, the American lowered the trail in the head-to-head series by 1-2.
29-year-old American was in terrible form as she was standing on a five match losing streak before entering Royal Primerose Tennis Club. She re-focused and re-formed her strategy in this event and overpowered Chinese wild card
Zi Yan, sixth seeded Georgian Oksana Kalashnikova and Argentinean Paula Ormaechea in the qualifiers.
The lower ranked stormed in the main draw and held her opening serve spectacularly in the first set. Later, she lost her serve once but converted both breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to seal the set by winning six games
to three. Spears clobbered more double faults and produced a lower first serve share of 55 percent as compared to South African’s 60 percent, she registered an amazing 86 percent win on it.
The American went on savage mode in the final set as she unleashed blistering forehands to reel off first five games in a row. Although she lost her serve in the proceeding game, Spears snatched it back in the seventh game to clinch
the set with a breadstick. The qualifier couldn’t save the only breakpoint faced but she converted four out of nine breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Up next for the American is the eighth seed Shuai Peng. The Chinese rallied past Belgian wild card entrant, Kirsten Flipkens in a three set thriller. The 25-year-old saved only one out of five breakpoints conceded but converted
six out of fourteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match with a 6-0, 1-6, 6-3 win.
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