Daniela Hantuchova eases past Sara Errani to book a place in the third round – French Open 2011
Slovakian tennis star Daniela Hantuchova crushed Sara Errani of Italy 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday to make it through to the third round of 2011 Roland Garros in Paris. Hantuchova was in aggressive mood and smashed wonderful forehand and backhand winners all over the court. She required only one hour and eight minutes dispatching her opponent.
Ranked 29th in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings, Hantuchova looked in commanding form not allowing her opponent to breath throughout the match. Her powerful and accurate serves forced Errani to play defensively as she used the angles brilliantly to earn crucial points during the contest. Dropping only a game in the set, she took the set score lead 1-0. With 16 winners in the set, Hantuchova was able to dictate terms and push the challenger right back to the baseline from where she had very few answers.
The second set also followed a similar trend with Hantuchova dominating almost all aspects of the game. She broke he opponent’s serve four times during the set as compared to only a two serve breaks managed by Errani. Looking for an entry back into the match, Errani put up a great fight but Hantuchova looked on a different level and successfully converted a long rally in her favour to end the contest in straight sets.
Both players’ first serve conversion was evenly matched. However, with complete dominance in the serve return department of the game, Hantuchova was able to take charge of the game. The 28-year-old converted six out of eight break chances in the match as compared to only two out of four achieved by her opponent, an area of the game that played a vital part in her victory. Errani’s weak second serve caused all sorts of problems for her as Hantuchova was able to take control of the points right from the start.
Errani looked disappointed with the result but being a great fighter she is expected to make a strong come back on her next WTA appearance.
Having had a decent season on the tour so far, Hantuchova will take a lot of confidence from her two emphatic wins at the clay courts of Roland Garros here in Paris. At Pattaya City, she surprised the critics when she defeated Vera Zvonareva and Sara Errani to lift fourth WTA title of her career. Just over a week ago she reached the semi-final at Strasbourg as well.
She will be eying another solid performance here at Roland Garros but consistency is going to be the key against other top seeded players. In her next match-up, Hantuchova will go head to head with Caroline Wozniacki. Wozniacki is certainly the favourite for this clash however if the Slovakian can keep her current form, she may upset the world number one player.
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