France’s Alize Cornet outplays Russia’s Vesna Manasieva in final qualifiers of the BNP Paribas Open
France’s third seeded Alize Cornet stood victorious against the 24th seeded Vesna Manasieva of Russia in the final qualifying round of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Tuesday night. Cornet took two hours and fifteen minutes to overcome
her opponent at 6-3, 4-6, 6-0.
The 21-year-old French player stumbled in the second set of the contest after she secured the opener convincingly. She bounced back into the competition and wiped out her opponent in the final set to progress to the main draws at Indian Wells.
Cornet’s overall performance in the match was quite impressive, except for the costly errors she committed. The Frenchwoman coughed up 12 double faults in the contest, something needing immediate rectification for further success in the event.
The contest was packed with a number of break chances for both players. Manasieva received 13 break opportunities, but she cashed in merely six of them. The Frenchwoman crafted 15 break points and converted nine to her advantage. Cornet proved to be better
in terms of winning crucial points on regularity, as she won 91 out of a total of 163 points.
The opener took off with the two opponents cracking early serve breaks. A trade of two break points from each contestant left Manasieva trailing behind at 3-4. The French player won 8 of 11 return points to pressurise her opponent. Cornet executed some excellent
cross-court strokes to hit her third serve break of the set, extending her lead to 5-3. She faced less difficulty to serve out the first set at 6-3.
The second set started off in the similar fashion as the first one, as a series of serve breaks was witnessed with both women winning three break points each to take the scores to 5-4, with Cornet serving to stay in the set. Manasieva took her opponent by
surprise when she bagged three straight points to seal the second set at 6-4.
The tide turned in the decider, as Cornet came out firing at her opponent. The furious Cornet broke her opponent in her every single serve game. Although her first serve of 60 per cent was significantly lower than her opponent’s 75 per cent, Cornet’s service
was not broken once in the set. She successfully defended the two break chances she faced from Manasieva and provided no opportunity to the Russian to bounce back in the game. Cornet sealed the decider with an assertive score of 6-0 to advance to the main
draws of the tournament.
Cornet will be squaring off against Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in her opening round match of the main draws at the BNP Paribas Open.
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