Irina-Camelia Begu disposes Bethanie Mattek-Sands to reach the semis – Generali Ladies Linz 2012
World number 57, Irina-Camelia Begu, booked a berth in the semi-final of the Generali Ladies Linz on Friday at the expense of the 201st ranked American qualifier, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who showed immense resistance
for an hour and 56 minutes at the hard courts of Austria. The 22-year-old Romanian bagged the match in three sets with the scores of 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
Sands was having a terrific run in Linz and dismantled two players in the initial stages of the tournament before booking a date with Begu. She dispatched the seventh seed local, Tamira Paszek, in round one before ousting the Spanish
superstar, Carla Suarez Navarro. On the other hand, the Romanian was riding her luck to its best. She entered the main draw as the lucky loser and took out Catalina Castano in the opening round before disposing Kiki Bertens in the pre-quarters.
So, technically both the contestants have come all the way through the qualifying stages and it increased the temperature of the clash a bit more than expected. Sands failed hold serve in the first game and drowned to a trail of
2-0 that was kept intact until the end of the sixth game. Both players swapped breakpoints in the following two games that didn’t hurt the cause of the Romanian who made no mistake in rounding off the first set with a serve hold.
The second set was an absolute cracker for the 27-year-old American. She broke serve in the second game and took a resounding lead of 3-0; backed the mind-startling beginning with another breakthrough in the sixth game to make
it 5-1. She just had to hold serve and the match was through to the deciding battle. She did that in style and enforced immense pressure on the youngster at the other end.
Begu showed immense courage to fight back after a dismal set. No breakthrough for the first five games helped the Romanian to regroup and consolidate. She launched an onslaught towards the ending stages and grabbed two back-to-back
breakthroughs to confirm a spot in the last four.
World number one, Victoria Azarenka, will face Irina-Camelia Begu to become the number one contender for the final showdown.
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