Bethanie Mattek-Sands strains past Kristina Barrois in the opening round clash – Open GDF Suez 2012
American qualifier, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, went through some tough channels before taking down the inferior-ranked German opponent, Kristina Barrois, in the opening round of the Open GDF Suez on Wednesday. The enthralling contest
lasted for one hour and 28 minutes of play before 68th ranked Mattek-Sands wrapped it up in straight sets, 7-6(3), 6-2, to march in to the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier tournament.
Local crowd at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin in Paris, France, witnessed a magnificent exhibition of pin-point hitting from the 26-year-old American. She banged 10 thudding aces and dropped merely six points on her first serve,
clinching 27 out of 33 points, en route to victory. Mattek-Sands converted three out of her five break opportunities in the contest, while the German veteran registered a mere one break of serve in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
The 30-year-old German appeared too sloppy on the courts and was often found in awkward positions in the match. Barrois had a decent start in the opening set and managed to drag the match into a tie-breaker round, eventually falling
to her hard-hitting opponent. She lost most of her steam in the following set and a dominant display of high quality tennis from Mattek-Sands drove her out of the tournament in a dismal fashion.
Mattek-Sands wasted no time to stamp her authority on the match; she broke the German’s serve in the second game of the match and then held her serve to lead 3-0 right up. Barrois finally replied with a break point conversion in
the seventh game and drew the scores levelled at 4-4 but couldn’t sustain her momentum in the tie-breaker round later.
The American qualifier pocketed the opening set in the decisive tie-breaker round and went on to launch an onslaught in the following set. Mattek-Sands broke her opponent’s serve in the first and then the seventh game to conclude
a convincing victory at 6-2.
Up next for Mattek-Sands in the second round draw is the seventh seed Italian, Roberta Vinci, who had a cracking opening to the tournament on Wednesday. She ousted the unseeded Romanian opponent, Simona Halep, convincingly in straight
sets, 6-4, 6-4, to book a spot in the second round of the Open GDF Suez. Vinci will take on Mattek-Sands on Friday and the winner of the match will get a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the tournament.
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