Andrea Hlavackova stuns Lucie Safarova to reach the quarterfinals – Bell Challenge 2011
Sheer surprise for the tennis fans at Quebec, Canada, as the second seed Czech contestant, Lucie Safarova crashed out of the second round of the Bell Challenge, at the hands of the unseeded fellow compatriot, Andrea Hlavackova,
on Thursday night.
The unseeded Czech displayed her tremendous tennis skills to outplay the world number 27 in straight sets 7-6(1), 7-5, to make it to the quarter-finals of the $220,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament. The second seed
Safarova hung in the game for one hour and forty three minutes before crumbling in the second set to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of a 103rd ranked player.
The second seed appeared rusty in the contest, spraying a number errant strokes all over the court to award some easy points to her opponent. Safarova coughed a total of nine expensive double faults on the crucial moments of the
game and converted half of her six break opportunities to finish on the losing side of the competition.
Hlavackova beat all the odds by her outstanding performance on the indoor hard courts of Quebec and got the better of Safarova after a stiff contest. She was off to a ballistic start in the opening set, breaking the second seed
twice in a row to race away to 5-0 lead in the set. She clinched 13 out of 19 first serve points in the first set but a couple of silly mistakes on her part allow Safarova to force her way back in the set.
The second seed took off from 0-5 and nailed two straight serve breaks to level the scores at 6-6, bagging 21 out of 30 first serve points. She lost her steam once again in the decider and let Hlavackova take the first set at 7-6(1).
An early trade of serve breaks was seen in the next set, followed by a regular game to take the scores to 5-5. A tie breaker round was about to come into play for a second time but a timely break point conversion from Hlavackova
finished off the contest at 7-5, getting her through to the round of four at the Bell Challenge.
Tags: