Christina McHale upsets Daniela Hantuchova in surprise victory at the 2011 Family Circle Cup
America teenager Christina McHale was on fire earlier today at the 2011 Family Circle Cup, employing a classic shock-and-awe manoeuvre by scoring an unexpected win over tenth seed Daniela Hantuchova in straight sets at the third
round of the prestigious Premier tournament. The American pro took less than two hours to secure her position in the quarterfinals of the event.
McHale seems to be the next big thing on the forefront of tennis in the world of American women. She is just 18 years old, and has wowed audiences with her breakthrough performance at the 2011 Family Circle Cup. The player is ranked
just inside the Women’s Tennis Association Top 100, squeezing in narrowly as World Number 97. She is right-handed, and has yet to turn fully pro. However, the teenager has posted surprising results at this event so far. She qualified for the tournament as
a main draw entry, and began her campaign by defeating up-and-coming qualifier Heather Watson of Great Britain. After scoring a three-sets win over her first opponent, McHale went on to face Alisa Kleybanova of Russia in the second round. The first surprise
of the tournament came at this stage, when the teenager ousted the Russian eight seed with a bagel and a fry to secure a position in the third round with a 6-1, 6-0 win. She then proceeded to thrash Hantuchova in straight sets.
Daniela Hantuchova on the other hand is ranked much higher at World Number 33, and is almost ten years older than her opponent. She hails from Slovakia, and has spent almost twelve years as a professional player after joining the
WTA Tour in 1999. She has won a total of four WTA career titles, one of which she collected at the Pattaya Open earlier this year in 2011. She managed to defeat players Alla Kudryavtseva and Evgeniya Rodina of Russia before falling to McHale in the latest
round of the Family Circle Cup.
Christina McHale was put through her paces in the first set, when Hantuchova put up a good fight against the player. The Slovakian pro only double faulted once, and fired four aces. She was broken just once, and quickly returned
the favour by breaking McHale. She lost the set by two points, and went on to the next set to fall apart completely. McHale was faced with an easy win at this stage, racing to close the match with a 6-1 scoreline in the second set. All in all, she took an
impressive 55 per cent of the total points in the match.
Christina McHale will be competing against former World Number 1 Jelena Jankovic in the Charleston quarterfinals.
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