Aravane Rezai sneaks victory over Edina Gallovits-Hall in the qualifiers – Sony Ericsson Open 2012
Unseeded in the qualifiers, France’s Aravane Rezai registered an upset victory over the 14th seed Romanian opponent, Edina Gallovits-Hall, to clear the opening round of the Sony Ericsson Open on Monday. The contest lasted
for one hour and 54 minutes, with Rezai ultimately coming out as the winner in the third set, settling the final scores at 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
It was the third meeting between the two veterans in singles encounters, with the prior two battles shared at 1-1 in the head-to-head series. 25-year-old Rezai was off to a flying start in the Monday’s matchup and raced through
the games to claim the opening set with the utmost ease. She went through a terrible slump in the following set, falling to her opponent to let her back in business. A gruelling final set was played between the two competitors and the Frenchwomen delivered
a crucial blow in the depth stages of the decisive set to close out an emphatic victory.
The unseeded French delivered just 58 per cent of her first serve on target and spilled eight double faults to award some un-fought points to her opponent. However, Rezai belted six aces and bagged 40 out of 54 first serve points
to compensate for the double faults she gave away to the Romanian. She had 11 break chances in the match and she converted six of them, whilst Gallovits-Hall registered four out of eight serve breaks in the contest to finish on the losing side in the end.
The contest started off with an exchange of serve breaks from both ends but Rezai constructed two more crucial serve breaks in the fifth and seventh games to seal the opener at 6-2. Gallovits-Hall came up with two break point conversions
in the following set to bring the match to one-all but it was Rezai who survived the stiff competition in the final set to finish off at 7-5.
Rezai will have to go through the ninth seed fellow compatriot, Stephanie Foretz Gacon, in the qualifying competition to earn a place in the main draw of the Sony Ericsson Open. Gacon manoeuvred her way through the unseeded Austrian,
Yvonne Meusburger, in the first round qualies to book a date with Rezai.
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