Johanna Larsson stuns Jarmila Gajdosova to advance into second round – Gastein Ladies 2011
Swede Johanna Larsson upset second seeded Australian Jarmila Gajdosova in straight sets at the NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies 2011, an International level WTA tournament held in Bad Gastein, Austria. She registered a 6-4, 6-2 score
line against the 24-year-old Australian to advance into the second round on Tuesday.
World number forty-six, Larsson took revenge for her loss to the Aussie, ranked seventeen places above her, at Hobart earlier this season. She earned this one hour and sixteen minutes straight set victory to not only secure a second
round spot in this $220,000 event but also level the head-to-head series by 1-1 against Gajdosova.
The Swedish number one confidently entered the clay court and quickly bagged the opening serve in the first game to take the initial lead. Later, she lost her serve in the third game but snatched it back in the very next game.
In addition to this, she exchanged another break in the sixth and seventh game before breaking the Aussie’s serve in the tenth game to clinch the opener with a 6-4 win.
She produced a similar first serve share of 50 percent and registered a fabulous 67 percent win on it. Furthermore, she failed to save both breakpoints faced but converted three out of eleven breakpoint chances to her advantage.
22-year-old Swede carried her winning ways into the final set as she unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off first three games in a row before Gajdosova could hold on. She lost her serve in the fifth game but went into rage
mode again to wipe out last three games. Larsson eventually sealed the set by winning six games to two. She clobbered a lower first serve share but earned a plausible 63 percent win on it.
"You can feel the balls are flying a little bit and we both struggled to get into the game," Larsson said. "She was making more errors than usual. My aim was just to put one more ball in and I got a lot of free points from her.
It was difficult to play, but I just tried to be more solid than her and it worked in the end."
Larsson came from a final showing at Bastad where she lost to eighth seeded Slovene Polona Hercog. Her run of form was impressive in previous tournaments as well since she made semi-final berths at Acapulco and Estoril and reached
the last eight at s-Hertogenbosch before entering this tournament.
"I really like it here in Bad Gastein," the blooming Swede added. "In Bastad there were so many people, my family and friends everywhere, and now we're up in the mountains and it's so quiet. I'm looking forward to the rest of the
week."
Up next for the youngster is Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko who destroyed Spaniard Nuria Llagostera Vives with a bagel to set-up this duel.
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