France’s Alize Cornet downs China’s Xinyun Han at BNP Paribas qualifiers
France’s third seeded Alize Cornet defeated China’s Xinyun Han in the qualifiers at the BNP Paribas Open on Monday night. The inform Frenchwoman wrapped up her straight sets victory with a breadstick in the second set, registering a 6-3, 6-1 score.
Ranked 70th in the world, Cornet destroyed Han’s dreams of a main draw qualification. World number 125, Han on the other hand, showed no enthusiasm and won only four games in the match. Besides this, she committed several unforced errors and double
faulted twice in the opening set to gift away the match. Cornet had a much higher return point winning percentage of 63 per cent as compared to Han’s 40 per cent and in the end clinched the match in straight sets.
The French player has not had much progress this season, as she was ousted in the early rounds at Auckland, Paris and Monterrey. However, she reached the third round of the Australian Open before losing to eventual champion Kim Clijsters. Cornet displayed
her magnificent skills right from the beginning of the match, breaking Han’s serve four times in the opening set.
Han saved a break point and managed to overcome Cornet’s defences by breaking twice, but it was not enough and along with committing many errors, she lost the set. Cornet also had a much higher first serve percentage of 70 per cent as opposed to Han’s 63
per cent, as she also earned an amazing 57 per cent win on it.
In the final set, Cornet kept her winning ways and with her spectacular abilities and skills, she clinched the set with a breadstick. Despite Han registering a higher first serve percentage and saving two break points, she only managed to win a single game
in this set. On the contrary, Cornet fired an ace and registered a stunning 76 per cent win on her first serve to win the match convincingly.
Han’s hunger for the title will still prevail after this match and looking at her poor performance in previous tournaments and in this event as well, she will need to practice much harder to achieve her goals.
Cornet will face Russian Vesna Manasieva in the next qualifying round, as she can reach far in this tournament if she maintains her form.
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