Johanna Larsson troubles Simona Halep in the 1st round – Texas Open 2011
Day 1 of the Texas Open 2011 saw the start of the main draw with Johanna Larsson and Simona Halep meeting for the third time. Both the players battled it out on the hard courts of the Hilton DFW Lakes in Grapevine, Texas. Larsson
won the match 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.
With almost achieving extreme precision and direction Halep struck one double fault, while Larsson saw four.
Larsson surprised everyone by hitting strong and powerful strokes, winning a remarkable 60% of her total serves along with, an exceptional 70% on her second return serve, hitting all shots that came her way.
The Swede (Larsson) had a strong defence which did not budge and was able to save 50% of her break points and with expertise managed to break her opponent’s serve twice, while her opponent had broken her serve once.
Unable to set her rhythm Halep was serving averagely and with her unsatisfactory performance in her return lost the set with a total win of 44% of her set points, she not only gave an edge to her opponent but also lost the set
by winning only 3 games.
After being beaten in the first set, the crowd expected the world number 53 (Halep) to pull up her sleeves and bounce back. However, that was not the case instead she plummeted even further in the second set winning only two games
against the world number 64 (Larsson).
Serving first with a lot of nervousness was Halep she opened the score card 1-0 by smashing 4 aces in the set to secure an untarnished game. That was the only game which displayed a brilliant play from Halep, after that it was
moving further down into the abyss.
The Romaine (Halep) had a poorer serve which restricted her in achieving only 46% of her total service points, while Larsson was winning more of her rival’s serves and like a trampoline rebounded most of her shots that came her
way and achieved an above average return of 54% of total returns won in the set.
Mean while, the Swede exhibited an excellent serve winning a praiseworthy 59% of her total serve points and confined her opponent to only a 41% win in the total return points.
In addition, the 23 year-old Swede’s defence was like a fortress and broke her challenger’s serve 3 out of 11 times and also managed to save 75% of her break points.
By accomplishing 56% of her total set points and by gaining 9 points more than her adversary Johanna Larsson bagged the set and the match, to be able to compete in the next round.
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