Anne Keothavong moves into second round; to meet Jelena Jankovic – Generali Ladies Linz 2011
Lucky loser Anne Keothavong of Great Britain had a dream start to her campaign at 2011 Generali Ladies Linz as she secured a thumping 6-4, 6-1 victory over Russian Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday to book her place in second round.
Keothavong played some exciting tennis in the qualifying round as well and now she will be hoping to continue her impressive form to make it all the way to the final stages of the tournament. Although, she lost to Vitalia Diatchenko
in final round of the qualification tournament, the overall quality of her game play was quite good.
Ranked 96th in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Keothavong is still is quite experienced at the international level. With more than nine years of professional experience, she has the ability to play her best
tennis even under pressure. Still in pursuit of her first ever WTA title, Keothavong needs to bring consistency into her game play if she wants to go the distance this time around. Defeating a player ranked much higher than herself, she would have gained a
lot of confidence.
Looking for a place in second round of the WTA tournament, Keothavong created lots of opportunities with her supreme agility on the court. Claiming almost 70 per cent of the points on her first serve, she served with control and
accuracy. Taking her chances, she bagged 64 per cent of the points on her second serve. Breaking her opponent four times during the contest, she established complete control over the contest.
Although she took some time to settle down, she was unstoppable in later stages of the match as she dropped only a game in second set to close out the match that lasted for only 1 hour and 24 minutes. Saving five out six break
points against herself, she had a rock solid defence as well, in addition to her strong attacking strategy.
Keothavong had her serve broken early in the opening set, which allowed Makarova to dictate terms early on. However, she bounced back brilliantly with a double break of serve to clinch opener 6-4. Breaking the serve three times
in the following set, she ensured a magnificent straight sets victory.
In another match, third seeded Jelena Jankovic led 4-1 in opening set before her opponent Kateryna Bondarenko decided to retire from the match due to a neck injury. Bondarenko broke the serve once but she failed to grab a single
point on her three service games. Jankovic will be facing Brit Keothavong in second round play.
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