Christina McHale rallies past Varvara Lepchenko in the opening round – Open GDF Suez 2012
American teenager, Christina McHale, impressed everyone with yet another thumping triumph in the opening round of the Open GDF Suez against her compatriot, Varvara Lepchenko. She cracked down her opponent in straight sets
6-4, 7-5.
It was an hour and 47-minute contest and the score lines don’t do justice with the inferior ranked American, who played very well but was extremely unlucky. Her shots were landing just long, especially the cross-court returns.
It was a formidable day for her.
Lucky loser, Lepchenko, had 2-0 head-to-head before this face-off. She defeated McHale in the French Open opening round in 2010 and Kansas City in 2009. Unfortunately, she was not in sublime touch this time around and lacked
accuracy with her shots that led her to collapse.
McHale started the proceedings with a successful serve game. She was followed by her opponent with a successful hold of serve. Both players traded breakpoints in the following two games and the scores progressed to 2-2. An
ace and a couple of eye-startling winners earned the 38th ranked American a successful hold before both players exchanged breakpoints for the second time in the set. Lepchenko failed to hold on to her serve in the last game of the set
and gifted the lead to her opponent.
Both players started the second set in a cautious fashion; holding their respective serves. Scores progressed to 3-3 without any drama and successive breakthroughs at either end kept the scores levelled at 4-4. Lepchenko
was struggling to deliver the right combination of shots that would have helped to be on the top of the points on most of the occasions. Her shot selection in the final game of the second set led her down, as McHale capitalized on a break opportunity to register
a maiden win against her compatriot.
Next up for the American tennis ace is the Belgian participant, Yanina Wickmayer, who progressed into the second round after her opponent, Jill Craybas, retired from the contest at the end of the first set.
In another encounter seventh seed Italian, Roberta Vinci, overpowered the Romanian counterpart, Simona Halep in straight sets to book a berth in round two. In a post-match interview, Vinci stated, "I expected a tough match
- Simona is a talented young player. It could have been faster; I was up a set and 5-1 before she started to play better. But when I had another chance to take the match I served well to close it out."
Contest is heating up with the slender-legged Russian, Maria Sharapova, staying the hot-favourite contender to bag her maiden title of 2012.
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