Chanelle Scheepers dismisses Yue-Yue Hu in 1st round – China Open 2011
South African Chanelle Scheepers saw a tad difficult victory against the world number 364 Chinese Yue-Yue Hu in the opening round of the China Open 2011. The players had taken up the gantlet on outdoor hard courts of the National
Tennis Center in Beijing, China. After one hour and fifty eight minutes South African Scheepers survived a mid match lapse of 6-0, 5-7, 6-0.
Hu opted to serve first but she was unable to hold her serve in the first game and got off to a bad start. On the contrary, Scheepers had started dominating after capitalizing on an early break and by holding her serve in the second
game was leading with a 2-0. She again broke Hu in the third and then the fifth game to secure her lead of 5-0. As she served for the match in the sixth game, she expertly handled the pressure and concluded the opening with a bagel set victory.
The 27 year-old Scheepers was a more experienced player than the Chinese and although, she didn’t smash an ace, committed one double fault, she was still able to serve the Chinese with a bagel victory.
Opting to serve for the second set was again Hu and even though she wasn’t able to hold her first serve, she was also not going to let Scheepers serve her a bagel victory and she broke back immediately in the following game and
the scoreboard had tied at 1-1.
From there onwards for the next two games the score again progressed on even terms and the players were able to win on their alternate serves and squared the scoreboard at 2-2. The fifth game proved to be unlucky for Hu as she
was broken by Scheepers for the second time and by winning a game on her service game, she had taken the edge and was leading with 4-2.
During the following four games, initially the players won on alternate games in the first three games but eventually in the tenth game Hu broke Scheepers to tie the score at 5-5. At this point the game could’ve tilted either way
but as Hu held serve in the eleventh game, in a reversal of fate, she was now leading. With the crowd boosting her performance and cheering for her all the way in the seventh game, she pounced at the first and last opportunity to break the higher ranked Scheepers
and hacked away with the set.
By the end of the two sets both the players had bagged a set apiece and serving for the third round of the match was again Hu but this time Scheepers was in no mood of a cat and mouse chase and cut Hu’s story short. Scheepers kicked
into top gear from the very first game, as she broke Hu in the first game, then in the third and the last time was in the fifth game to score a flawless 5-0 victory. By holding her serve in the sixth game she sealed her victory.
Scheepers will now be facing Monica Niculescu, who ousted fourth seeded Li Na in the first round.
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