Ekaterina Makarova batters away Bethanie Mattek-Sands to reach round two – BNP Paribas Open 2012
Russian tennis professional, Ekaterina Makarova, trashed the local contestant, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, in the opening round of the BNP Paribas Open, contested at the hard courts in Indian Wells, California. The match lasted just
79 minutes before the Russian gobbled up the win in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.
Both players had seen each other twice at the courts. The head-to-head scores were tied at 1-1 with Sands winning the Federation Cup tie in 2010 whereas the Russian won the qualifying round in the JP Morgan Chase Open in 2007.
It was a sloppy start to the encounter with both players trying to capitalize on their serves and not exerting any pressure on their opponent. No breakpoints were witnessed in the first four games of the match with scores ticking
over to 2-2. Makarova was tested to limits in the second game of the match but that was the only time when she was put under pressure. Apart from that it was a straight forward battle with no flare at all.
Sands served the fifth game of the set and surprisingly received a bitter treatment for her class serves. Makarova was pulling out some marvellous winners down the line on the serves that are usually pretty hard to deal with. A
breakthrough in such conditions lifted her morale and she went on to consolidate her position with a successful serve hold.
She smacked another classic cross-court winner to bag another breakpoint and enhance her lead to 5-2. Nothing was going right for the local participant who failed to grab a single point in the last game of the first set and trailed
a set down.
The start to the second set was dismal for the local who dropped a serve game before making it up with a successful breakthrough in the fourth game. Scores kept ticking over and both players continued their hunt for a vital breakthrough
that would turn the set in their favour.
It was the Russian once again who won a breakthrough in the seventh game and rounded off the set proceedings with another thumping breakpoint to send a strong message to the defending champion, Caroline Wozniacki, who will be her
next opponent.
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