Anabel Medina Garrigues plonks Su-Wei Hsieh in round two – Internationaux de Strasbourg 2012
Fourth seed, Anabel Medina Garrigues, tumbled over the Taiwanese challenger, Su-Wei Hsieh, in two sets’ tie-breaker at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2012 on Wednesday. She nudged up a 7-6(9), 7-6(2) victory against the world number 64 to advance into
the final eight at this outdoor clay court tournament taking place in Strasbourg.
The Spanish number one showed top notch performance to oust Hsieh in their second encounter. The players last fought each other at the Wimbledon Championships six years ago and after pocketing this match, Medina Garrigues not only improved to a 2-0 lifetime
in the head-to-head series against the Taiwanese but also powered into the quarter-finals.
Medina Garrigues made a strong start at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International level tournament and drew the first blood in the opening game to take the initial lead. Despite losing her edge in the very next game, she stayed focused and dragged
the set to the tie-breaker. The Spaniard edged past her opponent in it and clinched the opener with a 7-6(9) score line.
Ranked 31st in the WTA Premier Rankings, Medina Garrigues lost her track towards the second set and after losing her serves twice early on, she went 1-4 down. She snatched a break back but lost her serve for the third time, eventually going 2-5
down. Despite getting back in action after that and levelling the scores at 5-5, the Spaniard lost her serve again to trail at 5-6. However, she made a spectacular reply and broke Hsieh’s serve to love, subsequently taking the set to another tie-breaker. Medina
Garrigues jumped to a 4-1 lead in it before sealing the set with a 7-6(2) win.
Summing up the Spaniard’s performance in this two hours and 29-minute battle, Medina Garrigues jolted down a lower first serve share of 59 per cent as opposed to her rival’s 72 per cent but impressively availed 39 out of 60 points on it.
Next up for the in-form Spaniard is the local wildcard entrant, Alize Cornet, who hit back to overpower the Israeli number one, Shahar Peer, in three sets to set up this battle.
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