Anabel Garrigues overwhelms Mirjana Lucic to reach the last eight at Internationaux de Strasbourg
Anabel medina Garrigues continued her impressive run at the clay courts of Internationaux de Strasbourg as she defeated Croat qualifier Mirjana Lucic 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the semi-final.
Garrigues made a very positive start to the contest and broke the serve early in the opening set to dent her opponent’s confidence levels. Her strong backhand shot created all sorts of problems for the challenger as she established her dominance in the contest. The Spanish tennis pro held on to her serve games to take the opener 6-4.
Both players traded serve break in the following set. Lucic made the first serve break of the set with a lovely forehand winner down the line. However Garrigues concentrated on her own game and broke straight back to ensure her strong position in the match. She converted a long rally in her favour to set up three match points for herself and then converted the very first one to secure a straight sets victory.
Garrigues superior serve proved to be the main difference between the two contestants as she achieved an impressive 76 per cent first serves conversion. She also dominated the serve return department of the game by claiming more than 48 per cent of the points. Ranked 44 in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Garrigues executed her game plan to perfection as she made the challenger run for the money.
The Spaniard has a special liking for the clay court surface as nine of her ten WTA titles have come on her favourite clay surface. Moreover she has a formidable record at Strasbourg Open, being the champion back in 2005, 2007 and 2008.
The 28-year-old also stood runner-up at the last year’s edition of this tournament. For the last few months Garrigues has been in excellent form and claimed her first tile of the season at Estoril Open. Her opponent in the semi-final will be the winner from the quarterfinal match between Daniela Hantuchova and Nadia Petrova.
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