Dominika Cibulkova defeats Arantxa Parra Santonja in 1st round – Hansol Korea Open 2011
Slovak wildcard entrant Dominika Cibulkova prevails against Espanola Arantxa Parra Santonja in the opening round match of the Hansol Korea Open 2011. The two battled it out on the hard courts of Olympic Tennis Courts in Seoul,
South Korea on the 19th of September 2011. After one hour and 52 minutes of play, wildcard Cibulkova won in straight sets of 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Cibulkova was first to open the set and by smashing two consecutive backhand winners in the first game, she bagged a 1-0. She then went on to take the lead at 2-0 by breaking her adversary’s serve in the second game.
Not wanting to let Cibulkova increase the lead, Santonja broke Cibulkova to edge closer and eventually as she held her serve in the fourth game, she was able to balance the score at 2-2.
The Slovak won on her serve in the fifth game and broke again in the sixth taking a lead of 4-2.
However, in the following game Espanola broke back and was now only a game behind but during the eighth game Cibulkova broke her rival for the last and third time to finally take the lead at 5-3; eventually winning on her serve
she bagged the opening set.
Unable to completely weaken her opponent’s defence, Santonja tried her level best while; Cibulkova had smashed numerous winners and limited her double faults. With an assertive backhand play she expertly won eight more points than
Santonja’s.
After the first set victory, Cibulkova was not going to let her opponent take an upper hand and took a notch higher in her game.
Serving with resoluteness was Cibulkova and the two players held their serves for the first two games.
Amidst the following two games the two players broke each other once back to back and the score board was tied at 2-2, then again at 3-3, as they two held serve.
In the seventh game Cibulkova was broken for the second time by Santonja and she took a mini lead of 3-4, she was able to increase the gap by holding her serve in the eighth game.
During the following two games Cibulkova not only held her serve but also went on to breaking her adversary in tenth game to round off the score to 5-5.
By the eleventh game she held her serve to take a mini lead and was hoping to capitalize on the final break point to hack the match. As Santonja double faulted on her second serve she gifted an expensive second set to Cibulkova,
who won the second set and the match.
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