Alize Cornet gusts away Tatjana Malek in second qualifier - Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2012
World number 100, Alize Cornet, defeated the 179th ranked German, Tatjana Malek, to reach the final qualifying round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Sunday. The contest was played on Red clay courts in Stuttgart,
Germany and last for two hours and 46 minutes before the French starlet gobbled up the win 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.
It was a rough start for both players. No one was finding the great touch they have been, lately. It was frustrating and consequently points leaked on the serve games at both ends. After registering serve holds at the start, three
back-to-back breakpoints were shared in the ratio of 2:1 for Cornet. Finally, a serve hold for the French consolidated her position in the match.
Malek didn’t explore her form in the meantime and dropped another breakpoint in the seventh game. It was getting pretty ominous for the German and her counterpart took full advantage of the situation, bagging the final game and
taking the first set lead.
The German tennis professional started the second set miserably and dropped the serve game. However, she recovered well to diminish the trail to 3-4. However, she still needed to break serve to level the scores and in a ‘do or
die’ situation, the German clinched the breakthrough to keep the set alive and moreover dumped her opponent in the 12th game to take the set.
The final set started miserably for the German, once again. She went down 2-0 and looked drained due to the length of the match. Cornet figured it out and played long rallies to further exert pressure on the fatigued German competitor.
Malek lost another breakpoint in the fifth game and went down to a trail of 1-4 before further sinking down to 1-5. A successful breakthrough in the seventh game confirmed the triumph for the French who inched a step closer to the main round spot.
Next up for Cornet is another German starlet, Annika Beck, who ousted the Russian booming star, Anastasia Pivovarova, to book a date with her. It is going to be another enthralling battle to say the least.
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