Andrea Petkovic beats Sofia Shapatava to begin the tour of Pune – The Royal Indian Open 2012
World number 143, Andrea Petkovic, cleared the first hurdle in the Royal Indian Open at Pune on Tuesday. The sixth seed wildcard entrant from Germany dispatched the 23-year-old Georgian, Sofia Shapatava, in straight sets 7-6(4),
7-5 to book a berth in the second round of the event.
The 25-year-old German was playing her first match against the 290th ranked Shapatava. However, she was forced to work hard for her points but it was a good exercise for former world number nine to gather back some momentum
and spend more time at the court to enhance the confidence level after coming back from a major injury layoff.
Petkovic proclaimed in an on court interview, “I hadn't practiced on the centre court yet, so I was not used to the court, which is faster than the practice courts. At the start of the match I struggled to adjust and she played
really well and really aggressively, putting me under a lot of pressure. Finally, I found the rhythm and did enough to get through. I am very happy to win and feel fit and healthy on the court.”
A gruelling battle of two hours and 11 minutes witnessed four aces and seven double faults altogether. Petkovic smashed three of the four aces but committed one more double fault than her rival that was clearly frustrating. The
first and second serve conversion rate of 69% and 45% respectively wasn’t impressive as well. However, it was good to see Petkovic back to winning days after spending bulk of the season at the sidelines.
Petkovic broke serve in the fourth game of the match to take a lead but her opponent won a breakthrough in the following game to bring the scores back on serves. However, Shapatava failed again in the sixth game and this time the
German star protected the breakpoint with a serve hold to make it 5-2 in her favour.
Shapatava showed great character; won three games in a row courtesy to a breakpoint in the ninth game and bounced back in the contest. Both players held their serves to enforce the tie-breaker round. With immense experience under
her belt, Petkovic sneaked an early mini-break and won the first set.
The second set witnessed a flurry of breakpoints in the first six games but no damage was done to either party. However, the 12th game breakthrough for Petkovic proved to be the deciding factor that yielded her a place
in the second round against Chang Liu of China.
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