Kim Clijsters crushes Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open
World no.2 Kim Clijsters of Belgium faced no difficulty in outplaying her Russian opponent Alla Kudryavtseva in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California on Friday night. The second seed Belgian had a direct access to the second
round through a bye and wrapped up a straight sets victory 6-2, 6-0, in merely 52 minutes to advance to the third round at Indian Wells.
The contest appeared a total mismatch, with Kudryavtseva posing no resistance to the Belgian. Clijsters dominated the contest right from the beginning and carried on her momentum till the conclusion. Her typical fiery forehand worked perfectly for her, cracking
plenty of cross-court winners and penetrating the weak baseline defence of the Russian. The Belgian simply outclassed her opponent in the contest to advance to the next level of the competition.
The pressure of competing against the World no.2 was evident from the game play of the Russian, who appeared in all sorts of confusion right from the beginning. The World no. 71 did gathered some courage to break Clijsters’ serve once in the first set, but
the second seed stung three serve breaks to nullify her efforts.
Clijsters served with 64 per cent accuracy in the match and took 32 out of 50 points on her serve. She ignited the contest with aggression and raided the net on regularity to convert juicy volleys into cross-court winners. Her victory was assisted by a number
of unforced errors from Kudryavtseva, including six costly double faults.
The Belgian had a forceful start to the opening set, breaking in the very first serve game and exerting immense pressure on the 23-year-old rival. Clijsters broke twice before she got to a commanding lead of 4-2 in the set. A double fault from Kudryavtseva
gifted the third opportunity to the second seed to strike a serve break and serve for the match at 5-2. The Belgian concluded the first set at 6-2, taking a 1-0 lead in the contest.
Things kept getting worse for the Russian in the second set as she failed to hold serve even in a single game. Clijsters was majestic with her racket, driving winners all over the court and orchestrating most of the rallies in the set. She won 85 per cent
of her first serve points and stung three serve breaks to exacerbate Kudryavtseva’s position in the match. A total of 38 points were played in the second set and Clijsters amazingly won 28 out of them to ensure victory at an assertive note of 6-0.
Clijsters will next face the unseeded Italian, Sara Errani who defeated the 29th seed Jarmila Groth 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 en route to the third round.
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