Julia Cohen overpowers injured Cecilia Costa Melgar in opening round – Santiago ITF 2011
Top seeded American Julia Cohen was leading 3-1 in the third set before the local wild card entrant Cecilia Costa Melgar was forced to retire at the Copa Providencia BCI 2011, an ITF Women’s Circuit event taking place on the clay
courts in Santiago, Chile. She jolted down a 5-7, 6-1, 3-1 retirement victory over the Chilean to advance into the second round on Monday.
The highest ranked player of the tournament, Cohen displayed dismal performance in the opening set but took full advantage of the injury prone Chilean, ranked 569th in the Sony Ericsson WTA Premier Rankings, in the remaining
match. She was prevailing in the decider when the wild card enterer was forced to retire due to a back injury, automatically securing a round of sixteen spot.
Melgar quickly made on-roads to grab her maiden title after getting the first blood. Despite losing her proceeding serve, she smashed exquisite forehands to pocket remaining serves. In addition to this, the Chilean converted a
breakpoint opportunity to her advantage in the end to clinch the opener with a 7-5 score line.
World number 181, Cohen re-focused in the second set and held her opening serve convincingly. After Melgar swiped in her opening serve in the second game, the American unleashed flurry of groundstrokes to reel off next five games
in a row. She warded off all breakpoints came across and cashed in both breakpoint opportunities to earn the breadstick.
22-year-old American carried her winning composure into the final set. After the Chilean held her serve in the opening game, she went on a three games rampage. However, Melgar felt severe pain in her back and was forced to pull
out from the match. The American automatically advanced in this tournament.
Next up for the seed is the Peruvian Bianca Botto who drilled through Argentinean Carolina Zeballos in straight sets to reach this spot. She formulated a 6-3, 7-5 success over the local star on their first face-to-face.
Cohen will join the second seed, Paraguayan Veronica Cepede Royg who booked this second round spot on Monday. She battled past Austrian Tina Schiechtl in a tipsy turvy three set thriller.
Royg flashed in the opening set and quickly handed a bagel to the Austrian in under half an hour. Despite losing her ways in the second set and suffering a 4-6 defeat, the Paraguayan outshined in the decider and sealed the deal
with a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 score line.
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