Alexandra Dulgheru edged past Anabel Medina Garrigues at the Andalucia Tennis Experience
World number 27 Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania laboured for almost three hours before she overcame 62nd ranked Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain in the second round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience at Marbella Spain
on Thursday. The fourth seed Dulgheru wound up the three-set thriller at 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, to book a spot in the quarter-finals of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) event.
21-year-old Dulgheru made an awesome recovery after dropping the opening set and recorded her fifth win of the year at Marbella. Momentum kept swinging all the time and an exhilarating contest was witnessed, ending in the dismay
of the local crowd as the home favourite Garrigues crashed out of the tournament.
“Today on court I was feeling pretty good in my game, but at some points I was getting tired,” said Dulgheru after winning the contest, “With her difficult game, playing with a lot of topspin and coming into the court, it was difficult
to build a point. I was running a lot at times.”
The fourth seed had a ballistic start to the game, breaking in the second game of the opener to get the initial lead of 2-0. The Spaniard broke in the third game, only to be broken in the next. Dulgheru was in a commanding lead
of 4-1 and it looked as if the Romanian will ease out the first set but a dramatic momentum swing had the Spaniard fighting back. Garrigues fired two serve breaks and pressed her opponent to submit the game to her. The Spanish took 38 out of 66 total points
and served out of the first set at 7-5.
Dulgheru kept her first serve percentage to 75 in the next set as well and secured 18 of 30 points on it. She had a steady start to the second set, holding serve twice before she nailed a serve break in the fourth game to lead
3-1. Garrigues broke in the seventh game to cut the deficit to 3-4 and then held her serve to level scores 4-4. The Romanian accelerated from then onwards and bagged the next two games to seal the second set at 6-4.
The Spaniard hung in the decider for quite some time and kept pinching points frequently. The fourth seed Romanian was brilliant with her serve, delivering with 76 per cent accuracy and winning 15 of 22 first serve points in the
third set. Garrigues clinched a break point deep in the decider but it proved too late for her as the Dulgheru cracked in her third serve break of the set to conclude victory at 6-4.
Dulgheru will be facing the eight seed Italian, Sara Errani in the quarter-final of the Andalucia Tennis Experience. Errani defeated Kristina Barrois in the second round to qualify for the round of eight at Marbella.
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