Barbora Zahlavova Strycova advances at BNP Paribas Open with a breadstick
World number 57, Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova dumped world number 114, American Alison Riske with a 6-2, 6-1 score line in Indian Wells on Wednesday.
The 24-years-old Strycova hasn’t had much progress at Brisbane, Sydney, Memphis and Monterrey but she was able to reach the third round at the Australian Open before losing to eventual finalist Chinese Li Na. In this tournament
she displayed her tremendous skills to dump the American out of this tournament with a breadstick.
It was a dull and one sided match as the wild card American double faulted twice and lost two break points to lose the opening set. No one hammered any aces and regardless of having a lower first serve percentage, Strycova clinched
the opening set by saving five break points. She also earned more on return points.
Riske who was ousted in the qualifiers at Brisbane and Monterrey and was ousted in the first round at the Australian Open and the Midland ITF didn’t show any enthusiasm of progressing in this event. She double faulted twice again
in the second set and was able to save a single break point. Despite having a higher first serve percentage, she only earned 46 percent win on it. The Czech carried her winning ways to the second set as she broke the American’s serve three times and registered
an impressive 79 percent win on her first serve to earn a breadstick.
She will next face her 12th seeded compatriot Petra Kvitova.
Also advancing to the second round was the top ranked Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm. World number 56, Date-Krumm triumphed over world number 42, Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets.
Though Date-Krumm exited in first round at Auckland, Hobart, the Australian open, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, she showed her magnificent skills in this match to advance in Indian Wells. She earned a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the Kazakh.
Despite firing an ace and converting one opportunity to her advantage, Shvedova lost the opening set. She also saved two break points and had a slightly lower first serve percentage of 50 percent as compared to Date Date-Krumm’s 59 percent. But the Japanese
clinched with two breaks of Shvedova’s serves and earning an impressive 75 percent win on her first serve.
The 23-year-old Kazakh regrouped to get bounce back in game. She hammered three ferocious aces and broke Japanese serve twice in the final set. However, she still couldn’t get pass the Japanese veteran as Date-Krumm registered
a higher serve percentage with a convincing 64 percent win on it. She converted three opportunities to her advantage to dump the youngster out of the tournament.
She will next face 19th seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic who received a bye into the second round.
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