Bibiane Schoofs overpowers Rebecca Marino in 2nd round – Luxembourg Open 2011
Dutch qualifier Bibiane Schoofs upset Canadian Rebecca Marino in a three setter tipsy turvy match at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open 2011, a tier-III event from the WTA tour series taking place on the indoor hard courts in
Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. She registered a 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over the Toronto native, Marino to reach the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Ranked 199th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier rankings, Schoofs barely did anything in the opening set but handed a breadstick to equalise the set scores. However, she maintained her form in the decider and broke the
Canadian’s serve in the end to seal the deal in one hour and thirty-six minutes on her first face-to-face against Marino, ranked 137 spots above her.
20-year-old Canadian confidently entered the Luxembourgian hard courts and held her serve to love. After the Dutch woman held her opening serve, Marino went into overdrive mode to pull out a breadstick by bagging in next five games
consecutively.
Schoofs re-formed into the second set and took the first blood in the second game to go 2-0 up. Despite losing her serve in the following game, she went berserk to reel off last four games and earned breadstick.
In the final set, both starlets played their best tennis and held their serves until the eleventh game. The Dutch woman broke Marino’s serve and then held her serve in the last game to seal the deal by winning seven games to five.
Overall, Schoofs clobbered an equal first serve share of 56 percent but registered a plausible 63 percent win on it. In addition to this, the 23-year-old warded off seven out of ten breakpoints came across and capitalised on four
out of eleven breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
"She was serving well until the last game when she missed a few first serves," the delighted Dutch declared. "I was able to get back her serves and get into the rallies easier, giving me an opportunity to break her and then I got
to serve with new balls."
Up next for Schoofs is another qualifier, Anne Keothavong. The British woman talked about her upcoming match, "Bibi had a good win today. She also came through qualifying... I'm expecting another tough match and I can't take anything
for granted. I've never made the final of a WTA event. I've got to take it one match at a time, but if I can do it, it'd be wonderful."
28-year-old Keothavong stunned fifth seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic in straight sets on their first meeting.
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