Kateryna Bondarenko strikes down Ekaterina Makarova in the 2nd round – Baku Cup 2011
Thursday the 21st of July, saw the continuation of the second round of the Baku Cup 2011. The first two players to contest against each other were old time rivals Kateryna Bondarenko from Ukraine against Russian Ekaterina
Makarova. The Ukrainian won the match 6-1, 6-4 in an exciting sixty seven minutes and twenty six seconds.
The two players had previously contested against each other twice in 2007 and 2011. The first time both the players had met was on a hard court at Luxembourg where K. Bondarenko won the match 6-4, 6-1. The Higher Power gave another
chance to Makarova to equalize the head to head and the two crossed paths again in 2011, this season at the Qatar Ladies Open. Both the players battled it out on a hard court in Doha, Qatar where K. Bondarenko won again 6-1, 6-1. This event was another blessing
sent by the Higher Power for Makarova to avenge her loss.
Serving first Makarova’s precession didn’t falter even once and she struck no double faults, she was able to win a commendable sixty three percent on the first serves opening the set but failed to impress with her return serve,
winning just thirty eight percent of her total return points. While her opponent (Kateryna) served brilliantly as she hit two aces and seventy three percent of the first serves along with twice as many return points as Makarova’s. Her defence did not topple
and she saved a hundred percent of her break points along with wining both her break points and hence, gained the edge that she required to secure her victory in the first set.
After taking a beating in the first set, Makarova performed much better in the second set. She performed exceptionally on her serve by winning an eighty percent of the first serve opening the set along with a much improved performance
on her return serve but her accuracy faltered this time and she committed only one line fault. The moment of dominance on her opponent was short lived as she then started to lose points not only in her second return serve but also was not able to save any
of her break points and availed only one break point opportunity out of the five that were presented to her. On the contrary the second set saw Kateryna lose her concentration for a few minutes but then she took hold of the game and won the set with ten more
points than her opponents. Kateryna opened the score card to a 1-0 and smashed three aces, saved eighty percent of her break points and won a hundred percent; hence, she took the edge again and won the second set 6-4.
In a nutshell, Kateryna won because of her strong defence along with, availing every opportunity that came her way. Additionally, she also had an excellent serve and although she had a mediocre return and poor accuracy; as she
had struck six double faults she was able to win the match with a commendable sixty percent of the total match points where as her opponent was only able to attain a mere forty percent win.
Winning straight sets 2-0 she managed to qualify into the quarterfinal where she will now be facing her compatriot Mariya Koryttseva.
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