Kirsten Flipkens defeats Eleni Daniilidou in the second round of the 2011 Grand Prix De SAR
World number 104 Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium continued to display her brilliant tennis skills this season by defeating Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the second round of the 2011 Grand Prix De SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem at Fes,
Morocco, on Wednesday, the 20th of April. The determined Belgian Pro played tremendously and concluded her straight sets victory 6-4, 7-5, taking not more than two hours of play.
Flipken’s, ranked 104th in the world is currently the number-three ranked Woman’s tennis player in Belgium behind world number twenty two Yanina Wickmayer and world number two Kim Clijsters.
The 25-year-old Belgian made her most noticeable performance at the Monzon, an ITF (International Tennis Federation) Tournament. Displaying tremendous skills at the tournament, she reached the final round, defeating Portuguese
Professional tennis player Maria Joao Koehler and Canada’s Stephanie Dubois, before being defeated by the eventual defending champion Petra Cetkovska of Czech Republic with a score line of 7-5, 4-6, 2-6.
Flipkens, who has won 10 ITF Singles titles, and 1 ITF Doubles title, started the match in a very aggressive fashion and gave a very tough time to her Greek opponent. The second set was comparatively difficult than the first set
one as both the players had put up a great fight against one another. After a prolonged second set against the Greek pro, that eventually concluded in Flipken’s favour, the Belgium number three was completely in high spirits and had no signs of fatigue.
Emerging victorious against the Greek pro for the third time, Flipkens has now extended her head-to-head lead to 3-0. Their most recent meeting came at the final qualifying round of the 2009 Ordina Open in S-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands,
where Flipkens moved past Daniilidou in straight sets.
Looking into the match, Flipkens stood victorious in straight sets with a loss of nine games. Flipkens made 50 percent of her first serves and won 56 percent of points on her first serves and 50 percent of points on her second
serves. In comparison, Daniilidou fired in a single ace and 64 percent of her first serves, winning 67 percent of points on her first serves and a meagre 10 percent on her second serves. Flipkens bagged four of six breakpoint opportunities and clinched the
first set with a loss of only two games.
After losing the first set, the Greek pro totally lost her control over the match and carried out 10 double faults and a meagre 48 percent of her first serves on target. Flipkens on the other hand side of the net looked quite satisfied
and won 50 percent of her first serve points on first serves and 38 percent of her points on second serves. Moreover she clinched 25 percent of her breakpoint opportunities in service and 40 percent of them in return to clinch the set with a 7-5 score.
Nadia Lalami of Morocco awaits Flipkens in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Lalami who is a wildcard entrant battled past top seed Aravane Rezai of France in the second round with a score line of 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4.
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