Klara Zakopalova puts away Tsvetana Pironkova to reach the round of eight – Open GDF Suez 2012
In the second round battle between the two unseeded competitors, world number 51, Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic, reigned supreme over the 50th ranked Bulgarian, Tsvetana Pironkova, at Open DGF Suez on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Czech veteran took merely 63 minutes to overpower her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, to register her second victory of the 2012 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season.
Being played on the indoor hard courts of Stade Pierre de Coubertin, in Paris, France, the contest witnessed Zakopalova dominating all the way. She was off to a belligerent start in the opening set and went on for a six-game killing
spree to stamp her authority early in the match. Pironkova could barely win three games in the entire contest and succumbed in the second set to finish her voyage in a dismal manner.
The unseeded Czech hardly committed any mistake in the opening set and carried on her winning impetus in the next set as well to seal victory in an assertive fashion. Zakopalova clinched 18 out of 25 first serve points in the match
and broke her opponent’s serve six out of 15 times to drive her out of the contest. Pironkova could only register one break point in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
"In the first set I made hardly any mistakes; in the second set Tsvetana started to play slower and cut down on her errors, so it was closer," the 29-year-old Czech said. "I fought hard today - and I also got a little bit lucky
on some points."
Zakopalova left nothing for her opponent in the opening set, winning nine out of 11 points on her first serve and striking three successive breaks of serve. Pironkova dropped her serve again before she finally broke the Czech in
the second game of the next set. Two more break point conversions from Zakopalova ended the match in her favour at 6-3, sending the Bulgarian home.
Zakopalova will face off against a much tougher competitor in the quarter-final round, the world number 21, Julia Goerges. The German had a thumping victory over Petra Cetkovska in the second round of the Open GDF Suez, finishing
her off in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, in just one hour and five minutes of play to book a date with Zakopalova in the round of eight. A nail-biter is expected when the sixth seed Goerges will take on the in-form Czech on Friday night for a place in the semis
of the WTA Premier-level tournament.
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