Chanelle Scheepers outplays Michelle Larcher De Brito in round two – Bank of the West Classic 2012
Sixth seeded South African contender, Chanelle Scheepers, registered a convincing straight sets victory over the Portuguese wildcard entrant, Michelle Larcher De Brito, in the second round of the Bank of the West Classic tournament
on Wednesday. The world number 42 took one hour and 26 minutes to seal victory at 6-3, 6-4, marching into the quarter-final draw of the event in Stanford, USA.
It was a fairly poised contest, with both contenders straining extremely hard to get the better of one another. Scheepers was facing the Portuguese opponent for the second time in her career and sustained her clean sheet against
De Brito, who suffered a defeat at the hands of the South African in 2009 Birmingham. The 19-year-old wildcard contender couldn’t do much on Wednesday afternoon as well and was forced to surrender in straight sets.
Scheepers had a below average serve precision of 55 per cent in the matchup, coughing six double faults and clinching 19 out of 32 first serve points en route to victory. De Brito bettered her by winning 22 points on her first
serve but the vital difference between the two rivals lied in the number of break points being registered. The Portuguese contender converted three of her four opportunities whilst her sixth seeded opponent nailed six out of 12 serve breaks to remain on top
of the contest all the way.
De Brito suffered an early blow when she was broken in the third game of the match to fall back at 1-2. Another break of serve from Scheepers came in the fifth game but the Portuguese wildcard immediately retaliated to snatch back
her serve in the very next game, cutting the deficit to 3-4 later. However, The South African sixth seed sustained her lead in the set and came up with a crushing serve break in the ninth game to seal the opener at 6-3.
A much competitive game play was seen in the following set, with De Brito fighting desperately to stay alive in the competition. Scheepers broke into the initial lead of 3-0 but was broken in the fifth game to take the scores to
3-2 in her favour. A further trade of break points towards the end of the match settled the final score line at 6-4, letting Scheepers into the quarter-final round of the tournament.
This year’s Wimbledon champion, Serena Williams, awaits Scheepers in the quarter-final battle to be contested on Thursday.
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