Johanna Larsson slays Tamira Paszek to reach quarters – Internationaux de Strasbourg 2012
Swedish star, Johanna Larsson, shocked all by upsetting eighth seeded Tamira Paszek with a bagel at the Internationaux de Strasbourg 2012 on Wednesday. She juggled up a 6-2, 6-0 victory against the 21-year-old to power into the quarter-finals at this WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay court event taking place in Strasbourg, France.
Larsson needed 65 minutes to stomp over the eighth seed in their first encounter with each other. After pocketing this match, the Swede convincingly advanced into the final eight at this International-level tournament taking place from 19th to 26th May.
The in-form Swede high-spiritedly entered the opening set. After Paszek held her serve in the opening game, Larsson stroke out the following five games successively and leaped to a 5-1 lead. The Swede quickly held her serve to love in the last game and clinched the opener with a 6-2 score line. She swiped in her entire serves without facing any breakpoint and cashed in half of the four break chances.
Ranked 81st in the WTA Premier Rankings, Larsson unleashed flurry of groundstrokes in the follow-up set and stroke out all six games in a row. She dusted away all four breakpoints she faced and converted three out of four break chances to her advantage.
All in all, the Swede clobbered a poor first serve share of 49 per cent as compared to her opponent’s 63 per cent but impressively clicked 21 out of 24 points on it. She also fired three aces capitalised on five out of eight break opportunities.
Next challenge for Larsson is the former Roland Garros champion, Francesca Schiavone, who raised the bar of her game at the right time. The Italian number one crippled the Croatian qualifier, Mirjana Lucic, with a breadstick in an hour-long venture to set up this battle.
"When I switched on my mobile, I had received like 30 messages from my friends about my win," Schiavone reflected after her match "When I go home and go to dinner with everybody, people say I'm sad. I say, 'I keep losing first round. Should I be happy?' Now they are writing for me to keep going and win more."
The fourth seed, Anabel Medina Garrigues, also stole the show later that day. She lost her serve five times but capitalised on five out of 13 break opportunities to manipulate a 7-6(9), 7-6(2) score line against the Taiwanese contestant, Su-Wei Hsieh. She needed two hours and 29 minutes to overpower her rival and to book a last eight spot.
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