Arantxa Rus prevails over Paula Ormaechea in the final qualifier – Brussels Open 2012
Second seed, Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, faced limited resistance in beating Argentinean rival, Paula Ormaechea, in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 in the final round of the qualifying draw at the Brussels Open in Belgium on Monday.
Rus and Ormaechea started the match stably, winning their serve in the first nine games of the opening set to take the score to 5-4 in the former’s favour. The Dutch allowed Ormaechea to claim only one point in the 10th,
breaking her serve and sealing it 6-4.
The 97th ranked, Rus, hit a single ace and committed a couple of double faults in the opener. She kept her first serve percentage at 74 and converted 18 of the 25 of them into points. The Dutch also performed satisfactorily
on the second deliveries and returns, claiming five of the nine and nine of the 14 points on them respectively. The 21-year-old evaded the only break threat she came across and capitalised on one of the three opportunities she received.
After getting one set to love lead, Rus started strongly in the second, snatching opening three games to attain a 3-0 lead. The Dutch maintained the advantage till 4-1 but then Ormaechea bagged three in a row to draw level at 4-4.
The next three games went with the serves to take the score to 6-5 in Rus’ favour. Serving to stay in the match at 5-6, Ormaechea could not utilise two game points and lost it 5-7.
Rus was lucky to go through despite serving pathetically, as she did not hit even a single ace and committed five horrible double faults. The Dutch managed to hit merely 68 percent of the first deliveries and won just 26 of the
40 points on them. She also fared poorly on the second serves, losing 11 of the 19 points. Nevertheless, the 5ft 11in tall played well when it mattered most, saving four of the five break points she faced and converting two of the seven she received in the
second set.
The Dutch needed two hours and four minutes to oust her opponent in a tight contest.
Rus will try to win her second tour level match of the season, when she starts her campaign in the main round of this event. Her only previous triumph came in FES, where she upset Czech opponent, Klara Zakopalova, in a three set
thriller 6-4 5-7 7-6(9) in the opening round.
The Dutch will take on Zheng Jie of China in the first match of the main draw.
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