Ajla Tomljanovic shoots down Nicole Gibbs in qualifying 2nd round – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Croatian, Ajla Tomljanovic lay off the American, Nicole Gibbs, in the qualifying second round of the Bank of the West Classic 2011 at the Taube Family Tennis Center Stanford University, California. The Croatian, Ajla won the match
in one hour, 56 minutes and 54 seconds registering a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1victory.
The first time both players had drawn swords at each other was in 2009 at the Puebla Challenger, where the pair battled it out on the hard courts of Mexico. Ajla won the match 6-3, 6-4 and took the lead in their head-to-head 1-0.
Fate had given another chance to the American to avenge her loss at the Bank of the West Classic Tournament 2011, but alas!
Ajla won the toss, served first with confidence as she had previously won their head to head and smashed an ace. However in the next few minutes she struck five double faults out of which three hit the net while the other two were
line faults she also hit five aces throughout the set. Ajla won the same percentage (sixty four percent) of both her first serve points and her first return points. Even though, Nicole performed better at her return serve than her serve she lost her points
because she was unable to throw aces. Both the players had a relatively similar defence and the set was a close tie but Ajla won the set with a 6-4 victory and with only seven more points of the total set points than that of her opponents.
The second set saw a change of events and after taking a beating in the first set Nicole came back with a vengeance. Serving first with a little nervousness she opened the score card 1-0 and smashed two aces. Although both the
players had one line fault each, Nicole was able to win ninety one percent of her first serve points where as Ajla only managed a mere forty seven percent. Her fans cheered for her, giving the boost that Nicole required, she hung tight on to her defence and
did not let her opponent capitalise on her break points instead she won two out of the four break point opportunities. The Higher power had turned the tables in favour of Nicole; she finally was able to equalize her first set to set score.
The third set was the final deciding set of the match. Both the players had won, one set each, this set would determine whose going home and who will get to stay. Ajla was not to give up and serving first hit two aces and her accuracy
faltered once hitting a line fault. She was able to hit eighty percent of her first serves on the target and won a total of sixty one percent of her total return points.
The Croatian (Ajla), was able to save all her break points committed on her serve and converted fifty percent of break points that she faced. Although Nicole should’ve hung in and fought back she didn’t, instead it was as if she
was tired and had given up. Her performance was unsatisfactory and she had twice as less points than Ajla’s . Hence, Ajla won the match because of an exceptional performance and crushed Nicole completely.
Ajla won the second match against Nicole and took the lead in their head to head to 2-0. The 18-year-old Croatian will now face the Polish Urszula Radwanska at the qualifying final of the main draw to the event.
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