Kops-Jones/ Spears triumph over Glatch/ Vandeweghe in 1st round – Mercury Insurance Open 2011
In an all American match, Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears trashed wild card enterers, Alexa Glatch and Coco Vandeweghe, in straight sets at the Mercury Insurance Open 2011, a WTA Premier event held at the La Costa Resort and
Spa in Carlsbad, California, United States. They registered a 6-3, 6-2 victory over their compatriots to advance into the quarter-finals on Thursday.
The higher ranked American duo of Kops-Jones and Spears took just under an hour to dump their countrywomen in straight sets on their first meeting. After earning this success, Kops-Jones and Spears secured a last eight spot of
this hard court event.
Kops-Jones and Spears stormed into the opening set and unleashed massive groundstrokes with perfect co-ordination to reel off first three games in a row before their countrywomen could hold on. They kept their high spirit and broke
their rivals’ serve again in the sixth game to take a 5-1 lead. However, they lost to love in the seventh game but held their serve in the last game to clinch the opener with a 6-3 win.
They delivered their first serve with a 58 percent precision which was better than their opponents’ 52 percent and registered a fabulous 86 percent win on it. Despite failing to kick away the only breakpoint faced, the pair converted
two out of four breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to win comfortably.
After Glatch and Vandeweghe held their opening serve in the first game, the winning duo unleashed barrage of groundstrokes again to reel off next five games consecutively before their opponents could keep their serve again. They
held their serve again in the eighth game to bag the set by winning six games to two.
The in-form Americans organised a much better first serve share of 72 percent as opposed to slightly lower 70 percent by Glatch and Vandeweghe. They further spiced the set by earning a spectacular 92 percent win on it and faced
zero breakpoint. The winning American tandem then capitalised on half of the four breakpoint chances to their advantage to clinch quickly.
Kops-Jones and Spears will next face second seeds, Argentina’s Gisela Dulko and Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. The seeds slaughtered Poles, Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska with a bagel to reach this spot.
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