Aravane Rezai edges past Shuai Zhang to reach the 2nd round – WANLIMA Open 2011
French Aravane Rezai fended off late resistance to register a 6-2, 7-6(2) victory over the Chinese Shuai Zhang in front of a pessimist crowd on Tuesday. After earning this success, she secured a second round spot at the WANLIMA
Guangzhou International Women’s Open 2011, an outdoor hard court event held in Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China.
Ranked 106th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Rezai took almost one and half hour to dump the Chinese, ranked seventeen spots below her, to maintain her winning record. She not only extended her lead in the
head-to-head series by 3-0 against Zhang but also booked a second round place at this WTA International event.
24-year-old Frenchwoman unleashed her true colours from the start of the opening set and reeled off first three games in a row. Although she lost her way in the fifth game but wiped out last three games consecutively to bag the
opener with an assuring 6-2 score line.
The French starlet clobbered a poor first serve share of 44 percent as compared to the Chinese youngster’s 65 percent. However, she registered an amazing 73 percent win on it. Rezai also saved one out of two breakpoints faced and
converted three out of seven breakpoint chances to her advantage.
Rezai made a nervy start in the final set and lost her serve in the first game. However, she roared back in the fourth game to tie the scores at 2-2. She then held remaining serves and took the set to a tie-breaker. The Frenchwoman
outclassed the 22-year-old Chinese in it to clinch the set with a 7-6(2) score line.
The Frenchwoman spilled several errors this time around but manifested a better first serve share of 71 percent as opposed to Zhang’s 60 percent. She also earned a tremendous 73 percent win on it and exchanged a break to drag the
set to a tie-breaker.
Up next for the Frenchwoman is the eight seeded Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova who battled past American Jill Craybas in a three setter mouth watering match to reach this place. Rezai needs to focus on her defences and returns to
overpower a seed and to move far in this event.
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