Andreja Klepac overpowers Anushka Bhargava in the third qualifying round – Royal Indian Open 2012
Seeded at number one in the qualifying draw, Andreja Klepac registered a thumping straight sets victory over the local underdog, Anushka Bhargava, in the third qualifying round of the Royal Indian Open on Sunday. The 26-year-old Slovenian took barely an hour to register a 6-1, 6-3, score line, marching into the main draw of the inaugural edition of the WTA Challenger Series event in Pune, India.
The 17-year-old Indian contender has been doing really well in her initial two qualifying matches but didn’t stand a chance against the top seed Slovenian. She was all over the place throughout the matchup and couldn’t find her spots right. Bhargava utterly failed to deliver anything in the opening set but showed some spark in the following set before suffering a devastating defeat on her home soil.
Klepac was off to a flying start in the opening set, delivering 79 per cent of her first serve on target and clinching all the 11 points on it to get the upper hand. She was equally brilliant on her return game and won 15 out of 25 total return points on the Indian’s serve. The Slovenian top seed crafted a total of four break points in the opener but converted three of them to register a breadstick. On the other hand, Bhargava was nowhere near her opponent. She couldn’t get even close to a break point in the entire set and suffered 1-6 deficit to fall on her back foot early in the match.
The Indian underdog posed a better performance than she did in the opener and showed some early resistance in the second set. She claimed 11 out of 19 first serve points and converted her lone break chance in the middle of the set. However, Klepac continued with her rage mode and swept 13 out of 18 first serve points, breaking Bhargava’s serve two out of four times to cruise to victory. Her forehand worked perfectly for her and she kept belting assertive winners on regularity to come out as the dominant winner. A total of 95 points were played in the match, with Klepac winning 59 and the Indian lagging far behind with merely 36 points.
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