Christina McHale overcomes Caroline Wozniacki in the 2nd round – Western & Southern Open 2011
The youngest player in the top 100, Christina McHale overcame world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the Western and Southern Open 2011. Both the players had battled it out on the hard courts of the Lindner
Family Tennis Center in Mason Ohio. McHale won the match in straight sets of 6-4, 7-5 in 1 hour and 57 minutes of thrilling play.
Opening the set with her strong fore hand and powerful ground strokes was McHale, who won 17 out of 31 points, making it a 55% of her total service points, against Wozniacki who was only able to achieve 46% of her total service
points.
Wozniacki had a poor return as she used a mix of flat and loopy rally shots to prolong the points from the baseline, producing numerous forced errors, which resulted in her attaining 14 out of 31 points, putting together a mere
45% of total return points, in comparison to McHale, who bagged a 54% of her total return points.
Although, McHale was unable to save both her break points, she managed to break her opponent’s serve 3 times during the match, while Wozniacki had broken her opponent twice.
By gaining the competitive edge that the 19 year-old (McHale) needed, she was able to defeat her opponent in the first 40 minutes of the game by accomplishing 55% of her total set points.
It was a breathtaking play from McHale in the first set, but in the second it wasn’t an easy victory, instead, the world number one Wozniacki made come back and tried to take it to the third set.
However, McHale did not let that happen and kept control of her serves in the second till she broke Wozniacki in the eleventh game to serve for the match.
During the second set, both the players were extremely competent but Wozniacki was able to win all games on her serve and bottled 61% of her total service points. McHale was only able to hold off Wozniacki for a couple of games,
her return game was not as strong and hence, attained 39% of her total return points.
Wozniacki pocketed a love service game to lead the second set 5-4, but then McHale came back at 5-5 and continued to keep an upper hand in the match by denying Wozniacki any break of serve in the second set. McHale broke Caroline
Wozniacki's serve at a crucial stage in the match to get an opportunity to serve for the match. It became a do-or-die situation for the World No. 1 but alas! McHale won the set and match.
Following her victory McHale appreciated the crowd boosting her performance and said, "I was definitely excited to play her, and I knew the crowd would help me a little bit, being here in the States. I was just trying to take each
point one at a time and not get too focused on who I was playing or the moment."
McHale played great tennis from both the net and the back of the court; seeking her maiden WTA singles title and is a huge crowd favourite in Cincinnati.
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