Huber/ Raymond triumph over Fichman/ Pelletier to move into semis – Bank of the West Classic 2011
Top seeded American pair of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond eased past Canadians, Sharon Fichman and Marie-Eve Pelletier in straight sets at the Bank of the West Classic 2011, an oldest WTA Premier event held on the campus of Stanford
University in Palo Alto, California, United States. They registered a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the Canadians to advance into the semi-finals on Saturday.
The highest ranked pair in this tournament, Huber and Raymond displayed exceptional skills to overpower their unseeded opponents in under an hour and advanced into the last four at the Civic Auditorium of the Taube Family Tennis
Center.
The American duo stormed into the opening set and got the coveted break in the very first game. Later they held on to entire serves and broke Fichman and Pelletier’s serve again in the seventh game to clinch the opener with a 6-2
score line. Huber and Raymond clobbered a much lower first serve share of 56 percent as compared to their rivals’ 88 percent but they registered a spectacular 90 percent win on it. They also faced zero breakpoint and converted two out of six breakpoint chances
to their advantage.
The seeds kept momentum floating into the second set and broke the Canadians’ serve in the first game to take the initial lead. Later they converted another breakpoint opportunity to their advantage in the fifth game and held their
serve in the proceeding game to take a 5-1 lead. However, the high spirited pair lost their ways and gifted away their serve in the eighth game. Huber and Raymond held their serve in the tenth game to clinch the set with a 6-4 score line. They clobbered an
equal first serve share of 70 percent and registered an impressive 63 percent win on it.
Lisa tweeted after the match, “Nice to come through with a win tonight. Even nicer when the crowd sticks around for the doubles! Awesome! “
Up next for the beaming tandem of Huber and Raymond is the Japanese team of Shuko Aoyama and Rika Fujiwara who made an epic comeback from a set down to win against Slovak Japanese duo of Dominika Cibulkova and Kimiko Date Krumm.
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