Alla Kudryavtseva defeats Nina Bratchikova in the first round of the 2011 Grand Prix
Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia outclassed compatriot Nina Bratchikova in the first round of 2011 Grand Prix Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem at Fes, Morocco on Monday. The 23-year old Russian wrapped up her straight sets victory in three
sets 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, in just one hour and thirty five minutes to record her first win at the tournament.
The first set saw Bratchikova, ranked 149th in the WTA rankings list, dominating the set. The two-handed backhand, Bratchikova was very aggressive in her game and took the first set away with her powerful strokes. Kudryavtseva,
ranked 77th was unable to fight back the attacking movements of Bratchikova. The 25-year-old Bratchikova was just too strong to be ruled by Kudryavtseva, who failed to bounce back and gave away the first set to her lower ranked opponent.
Bratchikova hit a single ace and committed one double fault in the first set. She incredibly won 12 out of 14 first serve points in the set which showed her accurate serving capability. She competently defended her own baseline
and didn’t allow her higher ranked opponent to dominate her at any point of the game.
Unfortunately, Bratchikova couldn’t keep her momentum in the next two sets and lost them 2-6, 3-6. Bratchikova’s winning percentage dropped to 47 percent in the both sets, whereas Kudryavtseva displayed her outstanding tennis skills
and earned 71 percent on her first serves in the second set and 73 percent in the final set to take the lead 2-1.
She kept collecting a major portion of points in the set to make her position stronger in the game and hammered 60 percent of her first serves. She served out with much ease and scored 11 out of 15 points on her first serves. Furthermore
she crafted three break point opportunities but crafted just one of them to take the lead in the final set.
Bratchikova was completely destroyed by the pressure exerted on her and kept committing double faults during the match. Her double faults count on stats was three. Kudryavtseva on the other hand double faulted twice though she
played quite well and extended her match winning streak to four matches.
Kudryavtseva has one career title to her name, which she won at the 2010 Tashkent open where she continued her good from and defeated the Russian tennis pro Elena Vesnina in straight sets to claim her first WTA title. She will
take on seventh seeded Simona Halep of Romania in the second round of the main draw. Halep defeated Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus in the first round to reach the second spot.
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