Dominika Cibulkova outguns Yanina Wickmayer in the second round – Brussels Open 2012
Fourth seed Slovakian, Dominika Cibulkova, carried on her voyage in the Brussels Open campaign and overwhelmed the home favourite, Yanina Wickmayer, in the second round brawl on Wednesday. The world number 16, Cibulkova, took one
hour and 39 minutes to wrap up victory in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to earn a spot in the quarter-finals of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) International Tour event in Brussels, Belgium.
It was the fifth encounter between these two contenders and the first one on clay courts. Wickmayer stood victorious against the Slovak in their previous combat in the Indian Wells Masters last year but it was the payback time
for Cibulkova on Wednesday. The 23-year-old Slovakian registered her 16th victory of the running season to get to a 3-2 lead in the head-to-head series against the Belgian.
It was quite a fairly poised contest, with Cibulkova dominating for most of the time. The Slovakian fully capitalised on her opponent’s error-ridden game play to get the better of her and cruised through the two sets en route to
victory. Albeit she had a below par serve precision of 43 per cent in the match, Cibulkova clinched 17 out of 23 first serve points to do away with the Belgian. She had 14 break points in the contest but only five conversions proved sufficient for her to drive
her opponent out of the tournament.
On the other hand, Wickmayer kept spilling out unforced errors throughout the brawl and could barley register two out of six serve breaks to finish on the losing side in the end. She secured more points on her first serve than
her counterpart but had no answer to Cibulkova’s five cracking break points. She was outgun by the Slovak’s guile and smart play and ended the contest to give sheer dismay to her home crowd.
Cibulkova will next meet the unseeded Romania, Simona Halep, in the quarter-final round of the Brussels Open later this week. Halep stunned the former world number one, Jelena Jankovic, in the opening round and then outplayed her
fellow compatriot, Monica Niculescu, 6-1, 6-1, in the second round to meet the fourth seed Cibulkova in the quarter-final.
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