Anabel Medina Garrigues defeats Melanie Oudin; advances at 2011 Internationaux de Strasbourg
Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues eased past Melanie Oudin of United States of America to book her place in the second round of 2011 International de Strasbourg tennis tournament in France.
The 28-year-old Spaniard made a confident start to the match. She looked in control of her game play and executed her strategy brilliantly. Garrigues, who has a special liking for the clay court, broke Oudin’s serve in the second
game to put her opponent under pressure. She continued to play top quality tennis and claimed her service games comfortably to clinch the opener 6-3.
The second set also followed a similar trend with Garrigues establishing complete control over the contest with her superb ground strokes. She broke serve three times in the set and made the challenger run for her money with her
blazing forehand and backhand shots. She fired a powerful ace to set up three match points for herself and then converted the first one to end the contest after only 1 hour and 15 minutes of play.
Garrigues achieved an excellent 70 per cent first serve conversion and also claimed 62 per cent of the points on serve return. Her short selection was admirable as she created a number of break chances during the match. Oudin looked
a bit out of sorts and made a lot of unforced errors while executing her shots. She must be disappointed with her ordinary effort.
Although Garrigues started the season on a very poor note she came back brilliantly and gave significant results on the Women’s Tennis Association tour. She reached the semi-final at the Mexican Open defeating Julia Goerges in
the quarter-final. At the Sony Ericsson Open she surprised the critics by reaching the fourth round of the prestigious WTA tournament.
However, her most noticeable performance was recorded at the Estoril Open where she defeated Kristina Barrois to lift the tenth WTA title of her career. Garrigues looked in great touch here in her opening match at the clay courts
tournament. If she can continue her good form in her upcoming matches she could be a real contender to win the Strasbourg Open.
Meanwhile Frenchwoman Mathilde Johansson also secured a thumping victory over Akgul Amanmuradova 6-1, 6-1 to sail into the second round of the WTA event.
Mathilde adopted aggressive approach and looked to attack her opponent with every available opportunity. She broke the serve five times in the match and required only 1 hour and 1 minute dispatching her opponent. Amanmuradova looked
clueless against the onslaught by Mathilde and fell under pressure.
Tags: