Christina McHale stuns Svetlana Kuznetsova in the opening round – New Haven Open 2011
A big upset at New Haven Open at Yale, as the world number 16, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, crashed out in the opening round at the hands of 66th ranked Christina McHale of the United States on Monday afternoon.
The contest was staged on the hard courts of the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, with the sixth seeded Russian suffering a surprised defeat in straight sets.
Entering the competition as the wildcard, McHale wrapped up victory at 7-5, 6-3, taking one hour and thirty one minutes to make it to the second round of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) Premier Series tournament.
It is the second time in the current year that Kuznetsova has suffered a defeat at the hands of McHale, who is five times below her in world rankings. Earlier this season, the American outplayed Kuznetsova in straight sets 7-6(4),
7-6(7), in the round of 64 at Indian Wells and her Monday’s win over the Russian extended her head-to-head lead by 2-0.
The American has lesser trouble in disposing off Kuznetsova this time round, as the Russian assisted her victory by her errant stroke play. Kuznetsova sprayed a number of unforced-errors in the matchup to bestow easy points to
McHale. Nevertheless, the sixth seeded Russian posed serious resistance to her opponent in the game but McHale was always too good for her to contain.
Exhibiting her magnificent tennis skills last week to outplay the world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, in Cincinnati Open, McHale outplayed another top class opponent in style. “Yeah, I mean, I just tried not to, yeah, like let
the moment get to me. So, yeah, I just tried to focus on how I was going to play the point, not on the outcome. Thankfully it worked,” expressed the American in her post match reviews.
The contest was stuffed with plenty of serve breaks and a number of winners. McHale cracked in seven out of her 10 break points to the Russian serve, while Kuznetsova converted four of her five chances in the game to finish on
the losing end. The American kept on nailing serve breaks on regularity and gave no chance to her opponent to get her impact over the game.
McHale’s victory over the Russian booked her a place in the second round of New Haven Open, where she will take on the lucky loser from Spain, Carla Suarez Navarro, for a berth in the quarter-finals.
Tags: