Iona-Raluca Olaru crushes Hana Birnerova in the opening qualies- XX Copa BBVA Colsanitas 2012
Romanian tennis icon, Iona-Raluca Olaru, spared just one game for the Czech age fellow, Hana Birnerova, in the opening qualifying round of XX Copa BBVA Colsanitas, contested in Bogota. She wasted little time in ousting her opponent, crusing into the next round with straight sets 6-1, 6-0 win.
The contest was played on clay court and both players were in the hunt to inch one step closer to the main round draw of the $220,000 tournament. A sizeable crowd was witnessed at the sporting arena to support the contestants and boost their morale.
Birnerova was going through a formidable time of her career; losing eight of her last ten encounters. The fresh tournament brought nothing new for her, as she faced another embarrassing defeat at the hands of Romanian.
Olaru was also suffering with dismal run of form in the recent past; finding it difficult to have consistency in her game play. She won just four of her last ten encounters but this match will definitely give her a lot of confidence and enhance her enthusiasm to perform well.
The Romanian commenced the match proceedings in emphatic fashion; winning first five games of the set and registering a couple of early breakthroughs to completely destroy her opponent’s confidence. She was on top of her game; something that was missing in the recent past. She was timing the ball perfectly and placing it precisely at the corners of the court to force her opponent work for her points.
Olaru spared just one game for the inferior ranked Czech and bagged the opening set with ease. She was under no pressure, with her opponent struggling to find firm footing. The Czech was often caught on her heels and couldn’t speculate the returns on most of the occurrences. Soon after the start of the match, the Czech was trailing a set down.
The second set was a bagel for the Romanian, who was absolutely devastating with her forceful forehand down the line winners. She broke serve on three occasions in succession and didn’t commit any unforced errors to register a resounding triumph over her opponent. Coach of the Czech contestant was very disappointed at the half-hearted effort of her student.
In another one-sided encounter, the Kazakh contestant, Sesil Karatantcheva, defeated the Briton participant, Robyn Beddow, in straight sets 6-0, 6-1 to progress into the second qualifying round of the tournament.
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