Anabel Medina Garrigues claims second round berth; Eva Birnerova departs – Australian Open 2012
World number 27, Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, started her Australian Open campaign in a cracking fashion, ousting the world number 99, Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic, in the first round. Both players contested for quite a
time before the Spaniard triumphed in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
It was the first clash between these two players that was obviously running in favour of the Spaniard considering her superior ranking and emphatic run of form in the recent past. The Czech was happy to have contested in one of
the world’s biggest tennis tournaments, the Australian Open. Decent crowd turnover was witnessed in the Melbourne sporting arena during this contest, mostly cheering for the hot favourite twenty-sixth seed Spaniard.
Classic start to the first set was witnessed; first four games ended up with serve breaks for both players taking the scores to 2-2. Finally, the hot-favourite Spaniard held her serve to please the crowd. She was keen to explore
her prolific run of form that is completely devastating for the competitor. Again the next three games were a bit of a surprise for the crowd, as all of them ended in serve breaks. Scores were 5-3 in favour of the Spaniard; she held the last serve game to
take the first set.
Conventional start to the second set helped both players to hang on to their respective serves in the first four games. It was exciting to see that none of the contenders were feeling any sort of pressure of playing at the grandest
event of tennis. Both of them were in good form at that time and capitalized on playing their natural game. Improvisation at both ends increased the tempo of the game and the next three games ended in serve breaks.
Once again the Spaniard was in control of the proceedings and the scores line also favoured her with 4-3. She held her serve to take two games lead that was vital for her straight sets triumph. It was a ‘do or die’ situation for
the underdog Czech but she lost the composure and pressure forced her to commit unforced errors; lost the serve game to her opponent.
Garrigues proceeds to the second round.
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