Irina Falconi outlasts Bojana Jovanovski to reach main draw – Brussels Open 2012
Seeded third in the draw, Irina Falconi, had to fight hard to win against Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski in three sets 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4 in the final round qualifiers of the Brussels Open in Belgium on Monday. The American required
three hours and nine minutes conclude the marathon battle in her favour.
Falconi did not give the Serbian any time to settle, breaking her in the very first game of the contest and winning her next serve to gain a 2-0 advantage. Jovanovski, however, struck back in the sixth and evened out the score
at 3-3. They held their following two serves but swapped a strike after that to take it to 5-5. A tie-breaker was forced, as the score got equalised at 6-6. Falconi grabbed a late mini-break and made the most of it to win 7-6(6).
Both players did not hit any ace and committed three double faults in the first set. Falconi, though, had a better first serve percentage and conversion rate, as she put in 78 percent of the first deliveries and converted 21 of
the 31 of them into points. The American dropped seven of the nine points on the second serves but balanced that by snatching eight of the 12 on second returns.
In a similar fashion to the opener, Falconi got into lead straightaway by capturing first two games of the second set and moving ahead 2-0. However, the Serbian fought back immediately once again to level the score at 2-2. Jovanovski
did not stop here and captured two more in a row to attain a 4-2 advantage. Serving for the set at 5-4, the Serbian could not finish it off and evened it out at 5-5. Nevertheless, Jovanovski clinched two consecutively to seal it 7-5.
Carrying the winning momentum into the final set, Jovanovski made the best possible start, as she struck twice in the opening three games to go up 3-0. However, Falconi produced splendid play afterwards, claiming six of the subsequent
seven to triumph 6-4.
The American kept her first serve percentage at 64 and pocketed 15 of the 21 points on them in the decider.
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