Klara Zakopalova crushes Xinyun Han; breezes into the second round – Budapest Grand Prix 2011
Third seeded Czech Klara Zakopalova crushed Chinese Xinyun Han with a bagel at POLI-FARBE Budapest Grand Prix, a clay court tournament held in Hungary. She breezed into the second round after registering a 6-0, 6-2 victory over
the 21-year-old Chinese on Monday.
World number thirty-six, Zakopalova destroyed the Chinese, ranked 125 places below her, in just fifty-three minutes on their first meeting. She rarely faced any threat against the left handed Chinese and moved one step closer towards
the $220,000 prize money of this event.
29-year-old Czech unleashed her true colour after entering the court. She went berserk as she bombarded backhand slices and angled shots to reel off all six games in a row. Zakopalova fended off all three breakpoints conceded and
converted all three breakpoint chances to her advantage to earn the bagel in under half an hour. She clobbered a lower first share of 59 percent as compared to Han’s 63 percent but registered an impressive 62 percent win on it.
After Han kept her opening serve in the first game, the Czech unleashed a barrage of groundstrokes to win next four games in a row before gifting away her serve due to unforced errors in the sixth game. Zakopalova, however, kept
her rage mode as she broke the youngster’s serve again in the very next game and held her serve in the eighth game to seal the set with a 6-2 win. She produced a similar first serve share this time i.e. 56 percent and earned a fabulous 79 percent win on it.
The higher ranked Czech has had a pretty good season so far. She made quarter-final berths at Doha, Marbella, Estoril and Prague and reached semi-final at Hobart. She lost in the opening round at French open but reached the third
round at Wimbledon before losing out to eventual finalist, Maria Sharapova in straight sets.
Next challenge for Zakopalova is the winner of the match between Russian Nina Bratchikova and Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic.
Seventh seeded Romanian Irina Camelia Begu will be joining the third seed in the second round. She downed Spaniard Laura Pous Tio with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in one hour and thirty-three minutes later that day.
20-year-old Begu saved six out of ten breakpoints faced and converted six out of twelve breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to secure a second round spot in this WTA Premier event. The Romanian committed more double faults
and a lower first serve share but earned a convincing 61 percent win on it to win comfortably.
After this victory, Begu extended her lead in the head-to-head series by 2-0 against the Spaniard.
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