Elena Bogdan plonks Dinah Pfizenmaier in the first qualifier – Barcelona Ladies Open 2012
Elena Bogdan of Romania trashed her German age fellow, Dinah Pfizenmaier, in the opening qualifier of the Barcelona Ladies Open on Saturday. She bounced back a set down to oust her opponent in three-sets 3-6, 6-0, 6-2.
The match lasted for two hours and eight minutes before the Romanian completed her first head-to-head win in the maiden playoff between the two players. The first set started with a serve hold at both ends before the German broke
serve to take the lead. She dominated the show for the rest of the set having won another breakpoint in the meantime.
The second set was completely different from the first. The Romanian turned the tables on her opponent with some breathtaking stroke play. She won three breakpoints in a row and registered thumping serve holds to book a bagel in
the second set.
World number 209, Bogdan, was looking threatening at that stage. Both players started the second set with a serve hold and traded three breakpoints to further push the scores at 3-2. The German was broken twice whilst her opponent
donated just one breakthrough to her.
The Romanian cruised away to a lead of 4-2 with the help of a thunderous serve hold. She broke serve again that diminished any chances of a comeback from her opponent. The proximity of the ranking was clearly visible throughout
the match. Both players were reading the minds of one another very intelligent ally but the guile towards of the Romanian was not read by the German.
The final game of the match witnessed four points for the Romanian who cruised into the second qualifier of the tournament. She will take on the winner of the match between the eighth seed Italian player, Maria Elena Camerin, and
Slovak tennis professional, Romana Tabak. This match will take place later in the day.
In another encounter the non-seed Ukrainian, Yuliya Beygelzimer, stunned the second seed Italian, Karin Knapp, in straight sets 6-3, 6-0. It was a major upset of the day that was witnessed by a considerable crowd at the Red Clay
courts of Barcelona, Spain.
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