Kirsten Flipkens, Heather Watson sail into the second round – AEGON Classic 2011
Belgian tennis player Kirsten Flipkens crushed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand to book her place in the second round of 2011 AEGON Classic in Birmingham. Flipkens looked in stunning form in her first match-up at the Edgbaston
Priory Club and required only one hour and eight minutes dispatching the challenger.
The 25-year-old Flipkens has been around the Women’s Tennis Association tour for some time now. Being the more experienced of the two players, Flipkens used her grass court skills to great effect whereas her opponent struggled
to find her game on the green surface. Playing some exciting tennis in the opening set, the Belgian broke the serve at regular intervals. Lertcheewakarn looked short of answers and committed a large number of unforced errors in the process.
Having a mountain to climb, the Thai tennis-pro started the second set on a poor note as well and suffered a break of serve in third game to trail 2-1 in the set. Flipkens continued to play natural game without any fear as she
broke the serve three times in the second set. Despite breaking back once, Lertcheewakarn failed to take the match into the final set as Flipkens completed her straight sets victory.
Flipkens has achieved reasonable results on the WTA tour since the start of this season. She will be hoping to maintain her form in her upcoming matches at the 250 series tournament. However she must bring improvement in the serve
department of her game to pose any kind of threats to other top seeded players. She reached only a mere 53 percent first serve conversion against Lertcheewakarn and also made five double faults.
Lertcheewakarn had her chances to break the serve but she managed to convert only one out of six in the match and hence paid the price.
In another match Brit tennis player Heath Watson defeated South African Chanelle Scheepers 6-3, 7-5 to advance in to the second round.
Seeded 15th at the AEGON Classic, Scheepers was expecting far better results but Watson played some high quality tennis and did not allow the African to breath. Breaking the serve regularly, the 19-year-old established
complete control over the contest. She smashed her blazing forehand and backhand winner all over the court and made her opponent run for her money. Converting five out of six break points in the match, she made the most of the available opportunities.
Scheepers, on the other hand, failed to convert as many break chances as she struggled to cope with the blistering serves fired by Watson. She will be hoping to make strong come back on her next WTA appearance.
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