Arantxa Parra Santonja eases into the third round of 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
Spanish tennis-pro Arantxa Parra Santonja knocked out German Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Monday to advance into the third round of 2011 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open in Spain.
Santonja is enjoying terrific form on her home soil. In her opening match at the Women’s Tennis Association tournament she ousted world number 20 Flavia Pennetta. Ranked 70 in the world, Santonja has now taken out another top 20
player at Madrid as she thrashed out Andrea Petkovic in straight sets. Winning two consecutive matches against top 20 players will give her a lot of confidence in her abilities though the real test lies ahead as she faces the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Vera
Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova. The Spaniard was extremely delighted on her important victory.
"I've worked hard mentally," the Spaniard said. "I was trying to be optimistic and thought I could do it. I'm so happy. I hope I can continue like this."
Petkovic on other hand struggled to get going right from the start. Her on court movement was slow and she suffered a serve break early in the opening set. Santonja grabbed the opportunities with both hands and made the challenger
pay for her critical mistakes. Santonja broke the serve twice in the opening set to take the set score lead 1-0 in less than half an hour.
In the second set, Petkovic came up with a much better plan to down her opponent. After both players traded serve breaks the set went into a tie-breaker. However Santonja continued to play her shots freely and created match winning
opportunities. The 28-year-old clinched four straight points in the tie-break to ensure her win in straight sets.
Santonja stuck to her strengths as she adopted an aggressive baseline strategy. She hit the ball really hard from the lines and created tight angles for her opponent to cope with. Besides her brilliant attacking ability, Santonja
had a formidable defence as well that allowed her to save crucial points against her. The Spaniard claimed 63 per cent of the points on her first serve and also converted 56 per cent points on serve return to establish complete control over the contest.
Santonja has turned things around nicely for herself at the prestigious WTA tournament. Since the year 2011 has started she has struggled to find her peak form and experienced first round losses at several WTA events. He will be
eager to lift her first title of the year on the red clay courts of her home country. Her next match-up will be against fourth seed Belarusian Victoria Azarenka who destroyed Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-1, 6-1 to reach that far.
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