Bojana Jovanovski, Zhang Shuai progress into the second round of qualifying draw – AEGON International 2011
World number 55, Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia defeated Anna Fitzpatrick of Great Britain 7-6(4), 6-2, to enter into the second round of qualify draw on Sunday.
Fitzpatrick was playing an artistic first set which she had started in aggressive manner pinching some very quick points before losing the first set to her Serbian opponent. The success was short-lived as the Serbian quickly took
control of the first set and converted one of four breakpoints on the way to a tiebreaker. The 55th-ranked Serbian dominated the decider seven points to four, so she definitely had the upper hand.
Jovanovski was way too strong for the inconsistent Scot, who looked totally fazed by her poor play in the first set. The talented Serbian scored 63 percent on service, 30 percent on return and 47 percent of points in total to clinch
the first set.
The match only continued to get worse for Fitzpatrick fans as the Brit fell to an early break in the first game of the second set. Still failing to show any fight on the court, she dropped the level of her game and was staring
down the barrel of a very early exit. But, in the following game there was a slight whisper of a comeback for Fitzpatrick. Bojana briefly looked to be overwhelmed and started to miss the big shots, meaning Fitzpatrick was able to claw her way back in and level
the score at 2-2.
However, the positive moments were, short lived, and only two games later, the Serbian managed to take the decisive break of the match that would prove to be crucial. She finally broke her opponent for the third time to leave Fitzpatrick
stunned with a 6-2 score.
The Serbian now marches on into the second round of the qualifier where she will face Alison Riske of America on Monday.
In another first round match earlier in the day, unseeded Shuai Zhang of China defeated the fifth-seeded Vera Dushevina of Russia in the first round of qualifying draw. Zhang took a little over one hour and nineteen minutes to
send Dushevina packing with a 7-5, 6-4 score line.
Clearly unhappy with herself, Dushevina battled to hold her serve early in the second set but errors again allowed Zhang to break. As in the previous set, Dushevina found it within herself to claw the Chinese back before surrendering
her serve once more. With Zhang serving at 4-2, Dushevina won two straight games to heap the pressure onto the Chinese. However, she tamely allowed herself to be broken again at 4-4 and lost the match as Zhang proceeded to serve it out.
Zhang will next face Melanie Oudin of America in the second round of qualifier on Monday.
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