Anna Tatishvili beats Mandy Minella to clear round three – US Open 2012
World number 73, Anna Tatishvili, dumped the 79th ranked Luxembourgian, Mandy Minella, in straight sets 7-5, 6-0 to clear the third round of the US Open Championship.
Both players had faced each other once before the encounter on Friday. It was a comfortable victory for the 22-year-old Georgian but the encounter was played almost two years ago so the effect of that encounter didn’t drive the
proceedings of this battle. However, the Georgian leads the head-to-head series by 2-0 with the help of the victory at the hard courts of New York.
Minella commenced the match with a serve hold and so did her opponent. However, the series of breakpoints swirled the set from one player to another before it was brought back into balance at the scores to 4-4.
Both players held their serves in the following three games and pushed the scores to 6-5 in favour of the Georgian with her opponent serving to keep the set alive and enforce the tie-breaker round into play. It was a steady start
to the 12th game for the 26-year-old Luxembourgian but she lost her way after the first two rallies and gifted the breakpoint to her rival that was gracefully accepted by Tatishvili.
It was expected that the Luxembourgian professional will test her opponent in the second round as well but she failed to do anything. She was tied down completely and not allowed to bag a single game throughout the second half
of the match. It was a terrible performance from Minella who looked extremely threatening and competitive in the first phase.
Tatishvili bagged three back-to-back breakpoints and managed to hold on to her serves. The Luxembourgian wasn’t completely outplayed in the second set as she had opportunities to control the damage but she wasn’t able to keep her
calm; committed unnecessary unforced errors that led to her downfall.
The Georgian won the match with 72 total points; bagging seven of her allotted thirteen breakpoints and registered a respectable first and second serve conversion rate. Tatishvili will be going head-to-head with the reigning world
number one, Victoria Azarenka, in the fourth round.
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