Arantxa Rus defeats Jie Zheng in opening round – Brussels Open 2012
Dutch qualifier Arantxa Rus battled past Chinese Jie Zheng in a see-saw encounter into the second round of the 2012 Brussels Open in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday, May 22nd 2012. Rus battled for nearly two hours and seventeen minutes before securing a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory over her higher ranked Chinese opponent.
Meeting for the first time ever in the career, Rus played against all odds to emerge as the victor.
Winning the toss, Rus opened serve in the first serve and comfortably placed herself on the scoreboard. The next two games were won by both players on their respective serves. Although the scoreboard proceeded on even footing, the courts told a different story as the two players exchanged breakpoints in the fourth and fifth game before bringing the score tied to three games each. The pair exchanged yet another breakpoints in the eighth and ninth game before once more bringing the score to 5-5. Serving for the eleventh game, Rus stood at 6-5 in the first set before breaking her opponent for one final time in the opener to clinch a 7-5 win and a lead in the first set.
Down but seemingly not out from the game, Zheng bounced back in the second set. Opening with a break of serve, the Chinese put herself in a lead of two games. Back to back breaks in the third and fifth game, put Zheng in an impassable 5-0 lead over the Dutch. Although Rus broke back in the eighth game to reduce the deficit to 3-5, it wasn’t enough to hold the Chinese star at bay who broke her opponent once more in the second set to clinch a 6-3 win, bringing the set score to even terms.
A set win a piece forced the match into the decider. With a strong offense and an even stronger defence, both players made it impossible for the other one to capitalise on a breakpoint. The scoreboard continued to tick on even terms till four games apiece though the pair exchanged breakpoints in the third and fourth game. Determined for a win, Rus broke her opponent for one final time in the match in the ninth game before comfortably serving out the tenth game to clinch a 6-4 win, sealing her straight sets win.
Despite five double faults to Zheng’s two and a much lower first serve percentage and win, Rus was only able to edge into the second round of the event with a four point lead in the total points won. The qualifier now looks to face Swede Sofia Arvidsson in the next stage.
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