Irina-Camelia Begu ends Kiki Bertens’s resistance in the pre-quarters – Generali Ladies Linz 2012
Lucky loser from Romania, Irina-Camelia Begu, continued to make full use of the opportunity allotted to her in Linz. She bamboozled the 20-years-old Dutch, Kiki Bertens, in a tight two-setter to book a berth in the quarter-final of the Generali Ladies Linz. On Thursday, Begu utilized an hour and 52 minutes to put aside the 60th ranked Dutch with the final score line of 6-4, 7-6(7).
It was the first ever professional contest between the two contestants so apparently there was no mind games brought into the play. However, the guile of the 22-year-old Romanian did help her on different occurrences; made life difficult for her opponent. It was expected to be a very tight match considering that both contenders were just separated by three ranks in the world, Begu being the superior of the two.
Bertens lost just one point on her opening serve game and so did her foe. She was tested on the second turn but did well to hang on and survived the scare. No drama was witnessed until the end of the eighth game except the one tight serve hold from the Dutch. It was a classic traditional battle featuring high quality command on serves at each end.
However, the breakthrough finally arrived in the ninth game of the match when the 57th ranked Romanian smashed a startling winner down the line to clinch a temporary lead. She served for the set in the following game and successfully accomplished the requirements. It was a terrible ending to the first half for the Dutch star who had a most fascinating start.
Both players swapped breakpoints in the second set upfront before the 22-year-old Romanian claimed a lead with a breakthrough and a serve hold. Scores were pushed the 3-1 in her favour. The 20-year-old Dutch couldn’t break serve until the 10th game of the match when the scoreboard pressure had Romanian in all sorts of trouble.
A serve hold in the following two games enforced the tie-breaker and Begu accomplished the task which should have been over in the 10th game of the second set. However, no damage is done and Begu will go head-to-head against the American qualifier, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, in the quarter final.
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