Daniela Hantuchova chairs the 2nd round as Lourdes Lino retires – Western & Southern Open 2011
One of the fastest 1st round matches to end was flanked by Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia, and Lourdes Dominguez Lino of Spain. Playing the first rounder of the Cincinnati Open 2011, the two finished off in 53 minutes as the 30-year-old Spaniard retired after game 5 of the second set.
Playing at the Lindner Family Tennis Centre, Ohio hard Court, Hantuchova took her 2nd round seat with a comfortable win in the first round following with the world No.47 retiring from the match.
Ranked at world No.23, the Slovakian won her 3rd head on match against the 30-year-old. Previously, the two went against each other last year at the Monterrey Open in Italy. Hantuchova won the fixture in straight sets as well.
Playing tennis in her 30’s, the Spaniard surely had a hard time facing the Slovakian world No.23. Even though Lino is pool full of experience, her challenger put up a greater effort to overpower her in the start. The Fixture started off as the crowd settled down backing their player, cheering for them.
Serving first for the opener, the Slovakia took over the first game of the match winning, 1-0. The 28-year-old went on thrashing the Spaniard in back-to-back games. Winning 5 games in a row and breaking Lino twice in those 5, the former world No.5 led the game 5-0. Lino finally broke the silence winning her first game of the match.
Although the Spaniard won 3 games one after the other, Hantuchova needed just one game to finish off the set. Eventually the set concluded with the Slovakian winning 6-3. Securing 17 service points, 11 returners adding to the mere difficulty totalled an easy 28 points for Hantuchova for her set win.
Starting off with set 2, Lino came up with a stronger attitude winning the first game of the set, 1-0. However, the dominated levelled the scores in no time and followed with breaking the Spaniard and started the hammering once again, 2-1.
Hantuchova once again broke the Spaniard in game 5 leading 4-1 before the match was called off by the 30-year-old. Lino took off limping back to her locker room straining her left leg. However, she would have eventually lost even if she continued with the match.
The 28-year-old won herself an easy seat in the 2nd round though the way things were going she would have won even if the Spaniard had continued. Hantuchova awaits her second rounder against the winner of the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Russian, and Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
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