Elena Vesnina, Zheng Jie progress into the second round of qualifier – AEGON International 2011
Qualifying first seed, Elena Vesnina from Russia destroyed American Jill Craybas in her first round of qualifier at the 2011 AEGON International on Sunday.
Coming as runner-up from the doubles category at the 2011 French Open, two weeks ago, Vesnina carried her splendid form into this event taking less than one hour and twenty eight minutes to outplay her American opponent in straight
sets.
Playing Craybas for the fourth time in her professional tennis career, Vesnina battled past her lower ranked opponent to improve her head-to-head series to 4-0.
Opening serve in the first set, Craybas fought hard to get onto the scoreboard with a 3-0 score. The Russian player on the other hand was very active to tie the score at 3-3, without losing a single point during the process. Holding
their serves successfully, Vesnina and Craybas kept the score tied for six games. However, in the seventh game of the first set a deadly forehand winner down the line allowed the Russian to go one up in the set.
Vesnina carried her momentum into the second set and repeated the feat in the tenth game to clinch it with a 6-4 scoreline. Although Craybas raised the level of her game, she could not find the way past the Russian and lost the
match in straight sets.
The Russian will be delighted with the result and she well deserved her fourth victory against the American, having shot some winners over the course of the match. In contrast, Craybas will be disappointed with her own lack of
consistency that saw her make a number of sloppy mistakes.
Vesnina now moves on ahead to face Mirjana Lucic of Croatia in the second round of the tournament.
In another action-packed performance in the day, Zheng Jie of China gave a tremendous performance to beat the second-seeded Ayumi Morita of Japan in the first round of the qualifying draw.
After swapping early breaks, Jie and Morita struggled to hold serve until Jie capitalised on some sloppy play from the Japanese to break for 4-3. Jie maintained the pressure and held set point when the Morita stumbled and allowed
her Chinese opponent the first set with a 6-3 score.
The second set saw the Japanese pro playing at her worse, allowing the Chinese to take the second set with a breadstick win. Although Jie had a lower first serve percentage of 70 percent as opposed to Morita’s 86 percent, she managed
to win eleven points more on them.
Jie now moves on ahead to face Edina Gallovits-Hall of Germany in the second round of the qualifier. Gallovits-Hall moved past Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand in the first round to set a date with Jie.
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