Huber/Raymond battle past Kondratieva/Lefevre into the quarterfinals – Open GDF Suez 2012
Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond of USA got their act together after losing the second set, beating the Russian-French combination of Maria Kondratieva and Sophie Lefevre 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 in the first round at the Open GDF Suez
in Paris, France on Wednesday. The Americans took an hour and 29 minutes to overcome their opponents in a close match.
The two teams made a steady start to the match, as they won their serve in the first six games to tie the score at 3-3. Kondratieva and Lefevre drew the first blood, breaking their opponents in the seventh game to go up 4-3.
Huber and Raymond responded quickly as they broke back in the very next game, squaring off the score at 4-4. The Americans went on to win the next two games, breaking the Russian-French combination in the tenth game and winning the set 6-4.
The two legends, Huber and Raymond, delivered a single ace and 67 percent of the first serves, sealing 12 of the 20 points on them. The American team failed to save the only break point they came across but succeeded in converting
two of the four break points they received in the first set.
Kondratieva and Lefevre took an early lead in the second set, breaking the Americans in the third game and holding their next service game to take a 3-1 lead. The Russian-French combination did not allow their opponents to
break back, capitalising on the single break of serve to grab the set 6-4.
Kondratieva and Lefevre had mixed serve performance in the second set. They could not hit any ace and committed a couple of double faults, hitting just 53 percent of the first serves in the second set. However, the Russian,
French duo converted 14 of the 16 first serves into points. Kondratieva and Lefevre saved all the six break points they faced in the second set.
Huber/Raymond and Kondratieva/Lefevre went neck-to-neck till the middle of the match tie-break. At one time, the scores were 6-5 in favour of the Americans. After that, the Americans grabbed five of the next six points and
won the match tie-break at 10-6. The right-handers, Huber and Raymond, fired a couple of aces and bagged 100 percent of the first service points in the match tie-break.
The Americans will play Alberta Brianti of Italy and Alize Cornet of France in the quarterfinals. The Italian/French team defeated Nina Bratchikova of Russia and Darija Jurak of Croatia in the opening round.
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