Carla Suarez Navarro beats Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez in round one – Rogers Cup 2012
World number 44, Carla Suarez Navarro, edged past her 86th ranked compatriot, Maria-Jose Martinez Sanchez, in the opening round match of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday. At the hard courts of Montreal, Navarro bounced back
a set down to oust the 29-year-old Spaniard 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a gruelling battle of two hours and 13 minutes.
It was the fifth face-off between the two players and the 23-year-old Spanish led the head-to-head scores by 3-1 before the encounter. However, the last time they contested each other was more than two years ago in Marbella.
So, there were no mind games in process at the hard courts of Canada. Good start from the recently married Sanchez hinted at a possibility of an upset but she was deprived of the second round berth from a delightful comeback from
his compatriot.
Navarro commented afterwards, "Whenever you play a friend it's always difficult. We practice together and spend a lot of time together in tournaments, and we play Fed Cup together, so it's difficult to play against her. But then
it can also be good to play against someone whose game you know. Anyway I'm happy to be in the next round."
Navarro started the proceedings in dismal fashion; lost two breakpoints on the trot and failed to win anything on her opponent’s serve that drowned her to a trail of 0-4. Another breakpoint for her compatriot ended the opening
set proceedings with the 23-year-old Spanish winning just one game.
The second set witnessed much more compact show from Navarro who held her serves throughout and managed to sneak a breakthrough in the dying stages as well. She kept piling pressure on her opponent with powerful forehand and backhand
winners that finally allowed her to level the set scores and more importantly keep her next round hopes alive.
An exchange of breakthroughs was witnessed at the beginning of the final set. However, both players didn’t allow their opponent to sneak close to a breakpoint in the following four games. Sanchez was powered down to a breakthrough
in the seventh game and again in the following return game that ended the encounter in favour of her compatriot.
Navarro will be up against the 15th seed Sabine Lisicki in the next round.
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