Antonia Lottner plonks Clothilde De Bernardi to enter semis – Girls’ Singles French Open 2012
German qualifier, Antonia Lottner, stomped over the local wildcard entrant, Clothilde De Bernardi, in straight sets at the Girls’ Singles Roland Garros 2012 on Thursday. She nudged up a 6-2, 7-5 victory against the 17-year-old to power into the semi-finals at this major clay court event taking place from 22nd May to 10th June in France.
Lottner got the better of the local contender in 69 minutes despite facing a pessimist crowd. Encountering each other for the first time, the German comfortably advanced into the last four at this second Grand Slam event of the season.
The underdog thundered into the Court number Two and drew the first blood in the fourth game to jump to a 3-1 lead. She squandered her edge in the very next game but went on a three-game rampage to pull out the opener with a 6-2 score line in less than half an hour.
Ranked 924th in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Rankings, Lottner lost her direction towards the following set and gifted away her serve in the opening game. She recovered in the very next game but suffered another blow in the third game, eventually trailing at 1-2. However, the German not only snatched her break back again and exchanged another serve break but capitalised on her fourth break chance in the last game to click the set with a 7-5 win.
Summing up the 15-year-old performance, Lottner formulated an amazing first serve share of 70 per cent as opposed to her rival’s 62 per cent and availed 26 out of 45 points on it. She also committed fewer unforced errors and sealed the deal with 73 points to earn the glory.
Next challenge for the qualifier is Slovakia’s Anna Schmiedlova who upset fifth seeded Katerina Siniakova in three sets to set up this outing.
The 12th seed, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, will accompany the German in the semi-finals. She slew the 16th seeded American, Alexandra Kiick, with a bagel to progress at this prestigious event. The Estonian lost her serve three times but cashed in seven out of 15 break opportunities to formulate a 6-0, 6-3 score line in almost an hour.
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