Daniela Hantuchova eases past Alison Riske, makes it into the semi-final – AEGON Classic 2011
Slovakian tennis-pro Daniela Hantuchova continued her successful run on the grass courts of Edgbaston Priory Club, Birmingham as she crushed American Alison Riske 6-2, 6-4to advance into the semi-final of 2011 AEGON Classic.
Hantuchova made an aggressive start to the match as took the opener with ease and although Riske put up a good fight in the second set, she was unable to stop her opponent from earning a well deserved straight sets victory.
Looking for semi-final place at the WTA tournament, the fourth seed made an emphatic start to the match. Breaking the serve at regular intervals, she raced to an impassable 5-2 lead in the set. Holding on to her next service game
without any trouble what so ever, she took the set score lead 1-0.
Riske looked out of sorts as she was unable to get any timing on her shots. Unable to execute her forehand and backhand winners, the American committed a number of unforced errors including costly double faults.
Ranked 28th in the Women’s Tennis Association, Hantuchova continued to pressurise her opponent in the second set as well. Coming close to the net every now and then, she adopted a very attacking approach. Using her clever
drop shots to great effect, she earned crucial points during the contest. The Slovakian broke her rival twice in the set to lead the game score 3-1.
Breaking back, Riske managed to reduce her advantage to 5-4. However Hantuchova kept her head down and converted the very first match point to book her place in the last four at the competition.
"The first set was very good. I made it a little too complicated in the second set, being a break up and throwing that away," Hantuchova said. "But that set could have gone either way, so I'm glad I was able to close it out."
Riske had a wonderful week in Birmingham as she surprised her critics by reaching her first WTA quarterfinal of the season. She was looking for first WTA title of her career at the Edgbaston Priory Club but Hantuchova had other
ideas.
However, the un-seeded American will take a lot of confidence from her stunning performances. Having a great opening to the grass court season, she will be hoping to achieve similar results at Wimbledon.
Hantuchova, on the other hand, continues her run here and she moves on ahead to face former world number one Ana Ivanovic in the semi-final. The number two seed Ivanovic secured a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory over Mirjana Lucic
of Croatia to reach her first semi-final in seven months. The Serb will be the clear favourite, however, if Hantuchova can up her game play and control the unforced errors, she may surprise the 2008 French Open champion.
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