Christina McHale wins against Mirjana Lucic in the 1stround – Bank of the West Class 2011
Monday July 25, 2011 was the start of the first round of the Bank of the West Classic. The two players meeting for the first time were Christina McHale and Mirjana Lucic at the Taube Family Tennis Center, Stanford University, California.
In an effortless manner McHale won the match 6-1, 6-0 against her Croatian opponent (Lucic).
McHale won the toss and with enthusiasm opened the set by hitting an ace; she had an exceptional serve and won a hundred percent of her first serve points along with an immaculate exactitude she struck zero double faults. Additionally,
she was able to win sixty five percent of the total return points and capitalized on three of the five break point opportunities she faced in the first set. Even though Lucic managed to save two out of the five break points on her own serve, she had a very
poor defence and was not able to win any return serve points in either first return or second return along with a poor serve.
It seemed as if she purposely gave the match to her opponent. Hence, McHale won the set with almost four times more than Lucic’s total set points and took the lead 1-0.
After taking a beating in the first serve Lucic should’ve tried to play better however, that was wishful thinking and although she managed to win some return points they were still not up to the mark (won only fourteen percent
of total return points in the set). Additionally she also had a poor accuracy and struck seven double faults hitting the net. It seemed as if she thought her opponent as the net and not McHale! On the contrary her opponent McHale had exceptional serve, return
serve, a defence that did not quiver, and also managed to convert three break points that she was presented with.
The home-girl’s performance was also boosted because of the crowd; they did a Mexican wave when she aced and when she won the second set with almost three times the percentage than that of opponent’s.
Summing it up; McHale won the match because of an exceptional performance on her serve and return serve along with a strong defence. The straight two set victory has qualified her for the second round of the Bank of the West Classic
tournament 2011.
Born on the 11th of May, 1992, Christina Marietta McHale reached her career high ranking this year of world number 65. This year she has won twenty six matches and lost only twenty. Her most notable achievement of her
initial career events was in 2007 when she won the doubles title on ITF circuit
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