Kirsten Flipkens battles past Dominika Cibulkova into the second round – Bell Challenge 2012
Ranked 102nd in the world, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, stunned the top seeded player of the event, Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, in the opening round of the Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada on Wednesday.
The Belgian did not make a good start, as she badly lost the first set 2-6 but then bounced back in style to capture the following two 6-3, 7-5 to win the match in two hours and 14 minutes.
Cibulkova was first to take lead, as she nailed a break in the opening game of the encounter and held her next serve to take a 2-0 lead. The Slovakian struck again in the fifth and went on to grab the opening set 6-2.
The Bratislava, Slovakia resident banged in two aces and made one double fault. The right-hander had a poor first serve percentage of 40 but managed to claim all the eight points on them. Cibulkova was troubled by Flipkens' powerful
first deliveries, as she lost eight of the 11 points on them but balanced that by winning eight of the 13 points on the second ones.
Flipkens entered the second set with charged up batteries, as she grabbed opening four games to build a 4-0 lead. Cibulkova was making a remarkable comeback and almost cut her deficit, striking back twice to reduce the trail to
3-4. However, that effort also went in vain, as she lost the following two games to go down 3-6.
The Belgian contender hit a couple of aces and committed three double faults in the second set. The 26-year-old delivered just 45 percent of the first serves, securing eight of the 14 points on them. The Mol, Belgium resident gave
a decent performance on the replies to her rival’s deliveries, as she pocketed nine of the 14 first and seven of the 13 second return points.
Flipkens carried the winning momentum into decider, breaking the Slovakian in the very first game and consolidating on it to attain a 2-0 lead. However, Cibulkova fought back to draw level the proceedings at 3-3. The Belgian hit
a blow to her opponent again in the seventh but this time Cibulkova broke back immediately to take the score to 4-4. Flipkens made decisive breakthrough in the 11th and capitalised on it to triumph 7-5.
The Belgian participant will face Mirjana Lucic of Croatia in the second round. Lucic defeated Canada’s Heidi El Tabakh in the opener.
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