Christina McHale routines Carla Suarez Navarro in the second round – New Haven Open 2011
World number 66, Christina McHale of the United States, continued to impress all the tennis fans with her brilliant form, as she outplayed the lucky loser from Spain, Carla Suarez Navarro, in the second round of New Haven Open at Yale, on Tuesday afternoon.
The contest took place on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with the local wildcard entrant coming up to the expectations of her home crowd to wrap up victory in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. McHale took just 71 minutes to overwhelm the Spanish opponent in the most assertive manner and booked a berth in the quarter-final draws of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series event.
The contest remained completely one-sided all the way, with McHale dominating every minute of play to drive her opponent out of the competition. The American registered her 33rd victory of the running WTA season and levelled her head-to-head series to 1-1 against Navarro. She was defeated by the Spaniard in the opening round of this year’s edition of Australian Open 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, but she was absolutely ballistic in the Tuesday’s matchup. McHale dropped serve on merely one occasion and nailed five break points to blow away the 80th ranked Spanish player.
“I played pretty solid throughout the match,” McHale said after disposing off Navarro to reach the quarter-finals. “Carla has a really good backhand, so I was trying to get her moving on that side, not just stand in one spot hitting it. It worked well.”
McHale used her powerful serve to perfection and delivered 70 per cent of her serve on target, reeling off 24 out of 32 first serve points in the game to come out as the winner. She broke her opponent in the very first game of the match, only to be broken in the very next game. It was the only break point registered by Navarro in the whole match and the rest was an all- McHale show to watch.
The American closed out the opening set with two more serve breaks and carried on her momentum in the next set as well to inch closer to victory. McHale broke the Spanish serve in the third and seventh game of the second set to conclude victory at 6-2, moving into the round of eight of New Haven Open at Yale. She will take on the world number one, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, in the next round clash.
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