Aravane Rezai wins a seesaw semi-final against Angelique Kerber – Texas Open 2011
The two qualifiers that saw a seesaw semi final were French Aravane Rezai and German Angelique Kerber of the Texas Open 2011. Although, Rezai saw a hard-hitting match than Sabine Lisicki, she was still able to get past fellow un-seeded
Kerber on hard courts of Hilton DFW Lakes, Grapevine, Texas, in simply 1 hour and 58 minutes with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory.
The two had met twice prior to this event and with a match apiece they had tied their head-to-head with a 1-1 score. The first time they had won was on hard courts of the Australian Open in 2010, where Kerber had taken the upper
hand. However, during their last meeting in 2010, at the French Open both had dulled on clay courts but after three sets Rezai finally avenged her loss.
Meeting for the third time and looking to get an upper hand Rezai opened the serve and bagged the first game by smashing two aces. The French then went on to breaking her opponent in the second and fourth game to lead the score
card at 4-0. However, Kerber feeling left out eventually managed to break Rezai in the alternative serve and went on to winning another game on the respective serve. In the seventh game Rezai held her serve and ultimately in the last game she broke her adversary
for the third time to secure a 6-2 victory against German Kerber.
Following a comprehensive victory in the first set, Rezai had thought that she would soon be able to lock on to the second set and serve the match to her challenger. However, that was not the case; instead, Kerber came back with
a vengeance in the second.
Serving first was Kerber and she opened the score card to 1-0, then in the following four games both won on alternative serves until the sixth game when Rezai got the better off by breaking her opponent’s serve to take a lead of
4-2. Eventually from there onwards there was no stopping Kerber and she won on the remaining two serves to see an en-route victory in the 9th game against Rezai, who had managed to win only 3 games out of the total 9 played.
By the end of the second set both the players had bagged a set each and the third and final set was the deciding factor as to who would take the cake.
Although, Kerber had shown a tremendous progress, it was just not her luck and the two had engaged in some serious rallying.
Both the players were winning a blow for a blow and by the 6th game the score read as 3-3. However, after winning on her serve Rezai went on to breaking her opponent in the 8th game and took the lead on the
score card 5-3. However, Kerber broke her opponent on the respective serve and in the 10th game after winning a point even the score at 5-5. On the alternative serve Rezai bagged a game, leading 6-5, it was a crucial point in the game as to who
would be the last man standing and as Kerber served for the game point, Rezai snatched away the opportunity and broke her opponent’s serve to bag the set and the match.
Following her victory Rezai said, "I prefer to win easier, but I'm very happy to go from qualifying all the way to the final".
After Tamira Paszek the first qualifier to reach a WTA final since last year was Aravane Rezai, who will now be facing Sabine Lisicki in the final show down on Saturday.
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