Chanelle Scheepers stunned by Varvara Lepchenko in the second round – Mercury Insurance Open 2012
Unseeded local contestant, Varvara Lepchenko, registered a stunning straight sets victory over the eight seeded South African rival, Chanelle Scheepers, in the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open 2012. The 26-year-old spend
one hour and 22 minutes to wrap up the two sets at 6-4, 6-2, booking a berth in the quarter-final draw of the tournament in style.
It was the fifth encounter between these two contestants and Lepchenko avenged her previous two defeats from the South African. Scheepers outplayed her twice in 2009 season, first in Midland and then at Los Angeles, but it was
the payback time for the crafty American on Wednesday. Lepchenko spared just six games for her eight seeded opponent to record her 30th victory of the running season and improved 2-3 in the head-to-head series against Scheepers.
It was a fairly one-sided encounter with Lepchenko dominating for most of the time. The South African veteran posed some resistance in the opening set of the match but tended to lose her steam later, allowing her opponent to launch
her onslaught upon her. Scheepers utterly failed to even craft a single break point in the entire matchup and suffered three out of four cracking ones from the racquet of the American. Her return game was fairly poor in the contest, as she secured merely six
out of 28 first and 8 out of 23 second return points to finish on the losing side in the end.
The opener took off in a conventional manner, with both players holding their serves to reach 3-3. Lepchenko drew first blood in the seventh game and broke into a 4-3 lead to get into the driving seat. She sustained her lead in
the rest of the set and eventually sealed it at 6-4.
Carrying on with her winning impetus in the following set, the American rocketed away to a majestic 5-1 lead after nailing two successive breaks of serve. Scheepers could hardly do anything to restrain Lepchenko and had no option
but to succumb at 2-6. The unseeded American will face the fourth seeded Russian veteran, Nadia Petrova, in the quarter-final clash of the tournament.
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