Anne Keothavong stuns Tamira Paszek in the opening round battle – AEGON Classic 2012
British number one, Anne Keothavong, registered a resounding straight sets victory over the 12th seed Austrian, Tamira Paszek, in the first round of the AEGON Classic on Tuesday. The world number 76 took one hour and
33 minutes to dispose of the 58th ranked Austrian, 6-2, 7-5, matching into the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) grass-court event in Birmingham, England.
It was the second encounter between these two contenders this season. Keothavong registered her first victory over Paszek at the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha, Qatar but it was a fairly easy win for the Brit on Tuesday. She registered
her 14th victory of the running WTA season to level the head-to-head series at 2-2 against Paszek.
The 21-year-old Austrian was off to a sloppy start in the opening set and struggled to get her eye in the game. She was jolted by the belligerent approach of the British contender, who raced passed her to clinch the opening set
in no time. Paszek dropped the opening set early but posed some solid resistance in the following set to give some tough time to the 28-year-old British. However, her efforts went in vain as Keothavong nailed a crucial break point towards the end of the set
to conclude her triumph in style.
"It's not an easy surface to just switch it on," Keothavong said of the switch to grass this week. "Tamira made the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year and the fourth round a couple of other times, I think, so she's a tough opponent,
I don't think she's an alien to grass or anything. I also played her earlier this year in Doha and won in two close sets, so I kind of knew what to expect. On grass it's all about holding serve, and I knew if I could do that I'd have a few chances on hers,"
Oudin said of her match with Cirstea. "In the second and third sets I served well, returned well and played aggressively when I had to."
Keothavong will play her second round matchup of the AEGON Classic against the Chinese qualifier, Jie Zhang, later this week.
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