Bethanie Mattek-Sands undoes Alexandra Stevenson – 2011 Family Circle Cup First Round
American tennis pro Bethanie Mattek-Sands ousted compatriot Alexandra Stevenson in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 in her opening match at the 2011 Family Circle Cup. Mattek-Sands took just a little over an hour and twenty minutes to secure
her place in the second round of the tournament.
Mattek-Sands is seeded fourteenth at the tournament, and is currently ranked World Number 41. She is currently 26 years old, and has been playing professional tennis since 1999. She joined the Women’s Tennis Association tour almost
twelve years ago, although she has not won a single WTA career title yet.
On the other side of the net, Alexandra Stevenson is ranked World Number 265 at the age of 30. She is a right-handed player, and joined the professional circuit in the same year as Mattek-Sands. Despite her tenure on the Tour,
she has been much less successful than her fellow American opponent Mattek-Sands.
The match was an easy one for Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who took the lead in the first set by committing just two double faults while Stevenson blundered again and again to commit four. While Mattek-Sands was broken only once, Stevenson
could not defend herself against three of five well-placed break point opportunities. This further helped Mattek-Sands’s cause, giving her the edge she needed to take over Stevenson. She won the set 6-2, taking an impressive 59 per cent of the total points
in the first set.
The second set was an even easier affair for Mattek-Sands, who barely broke a sweat in this part of the match. She scored one ace, and only committed one double fault throughout the set. In comparison, Stevenson could not score
any aces and brought her total double faults up to seven by slipping up three more times. Mattek-Sands, on the other hand, saved four of five break points and successfully converted three of nine against her fellow countrywoman. Ultimately, she won 33 out
of 54 points in the set to conclude the match with a fry. The final scoreline was 6-2, 6-1.
This win brings the head-to-head score between the two players to 2-0 for Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Their first meeting took place almost six years ago, when the met in the qualifying rounds of the Filderstadt event in 2005. Mattek-Sands
was ranked World Number 180 at the time, while Stevenson lagged far behind at World Number 689. Mattek-Sands won the first set 6-1, and had already won two of three games in the third set before Stevenson opted out of the match.
Bethanie Mattek-Sands will now face Russian tennis pro Elena Vesnina in the second round of the 2011 Family Circle Cup, after Vesnina defeated Canadian pro Rebecca Marino in three challenging sets in the first round of the tournament.
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