Chanelle Scheepers defeats Yaroslava Shvedova in 2nd round – HP Japan Open 2011
Seventh seeded South African Chanelle Scheepers showed the door to qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova in the second round of the HP Japan Open 2011. On Thursday the 13th of October, the players took up the gauntlet on the
hard courts of Utsubo Tennis Center in Osaka, Japan. After a lengthy two hours and nineteen minutes seventh seeded South African scored a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) bouncing back from a set down to oust Kazakh Shvedova.
The first round of the match was kicked off by Shvedova and the two players managed to expertly place themselves on the scoreboard at 1-1 by hold of serve. In the following two games they broke each other back-to-back and the score
once again tied at 2-2 by the end of the fourth game.
During the fifth and the sixth game Shvedova held serve and then broke her adversary to take the lead at 4-2 but Scheepers was not to fall behind and quickly broke back and then with a hold of serve, she balanced the score at 4-4
by the end of the eighth game. The last two games proved extremely lucky for Shvedova as she held her serve and then broke her adversary in the tenth game to square a 6-4 victory of the opening set.
The second set was also initiated by Shvedova and this time the players broke each other one after the other in the first two games to equalize the score at 1-1. However, in the third game Scheepers had double faulted on her second
serve and endorsed an early break to Shvedova, who took the lead with a hold of serve in the fourth game.
Amidst the fifth and the sixth game, both the rivals won on alternate serves and the scoreboard advanced to 4-2. By the end of the eighth game the scoreboard had further rolled to a 5-3 score as the players had again broken each
other. Scheepers was leading the match and as Shvedova’s backhand shot went wayward, she endorsed the set point to Scheepers.
By the end of the first two sets, each player had bagged a game and opening the decisive set was Scheepers, who was unable to hold serve but was quick to break back in the second game to equalize the scoreboard at 1-1. The toe-to-toe
run carried well into the third set and as the players held serve for the following two games, the score had again tied at 2-2 and then 5-5 with the two breaking each other once.
Eventually as they held serve for the last two games, the set was pushed to a tiebreaker and the head-to-head steam carried well into the tiebreaker. Neither of the players wanted the other to take a lead and the two had tied at
five points each but as Scheepers capitalized on a break and then hold of serve, she rushed past Shvedova n clenched the tiebreaker with a 7-5 victory.
Up next for the seventh seeded South African is top seeded Australian Samantha Stosur in the round of eight.
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