Irina-Camelia Begu and Mariana Duque Marino successful in the 2011 Grand Prix SAR qualifying round
Romanian tennis-pro Irina-Camelia Begu secured a thumping 6-1, 6-2 victory over her compatriot Elena Bogdan on Saturday to advance to the second qualifying round of 2011 Grand Prix De Sar La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Morocco.
The running season has proved to be mixed bag of high and lows for the Romanian. She started the year on a poor note as she experienced qualifying round loss at the Australian Open. Her next Women’s Tennis Association appearance
was at the Mexican Open where she was again ousted in the qualifying tournament.
However, at the Andalucia Tennis Experience, Begu came up with a special performance as she reached first WTA final of her career. Begu defeated number 6 seed Klara Zakopalova and number 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova en route to the
final and rose in the WTA rankings from world number 138 to world number 97. The 20-year-old Begu has certainly carried over her terrific form as she required only 59 minutes dispatching her opponent in her opening match at the red clay courts of Fes. If Begu
can keep her current form she has a good chance of upsetting few top seeded players at the Morocco Open.
Begu made a shaky start to the match but soon found her touch and started to time the ball really well. She battled back to take the opener with six straight games after losing her first service game.
The second set also followed a similar trend. With some high quality tennis, Begu established complete control over the contest. She made her opponent’s plans completely ineffective with her strong determination and physical ability.
Begu dropped only a couple of games in the set as she breezed past the world number 204 Elena Bogdan.
Although Begu struggled with her first serve and achieved a mere 48 per cent first conversion, she was able to dominate the challenger in all other departments of the game. The Romanian secured 60 per cent of the points on return
and made the most of her chances by converting six out of nine breakpoints in the match. Her second round opponent will be Bianca Botto who breezed past Local Fatyha Berjane 6-0, 6-1.
In another match Mariana Duque Marino of Columbia defeated French Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4 to book her place in the next round of qualifying tournament.
Marino made an aggressive start to the contest as she clinched four straight points to make the first serve break of the match. She used her backhand and forehand shots effectively and required only 1 hour and 20 minutes to seal
the match in straight sets. Marino will take on number six seed Sloane Stephens of USA in the second round play.
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