Krajicek/ Safarova struggle past Lucic/ Oudin into 2nd round – Bell Challenge 2011
Third seeds, Michaella Krajicek of Netherlands and Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic, needed a third set to overwhelm the Croat American tandem of Mirjana Lucic and Melanie Oudin at the Bell Challenge 2011, an indoor hard court
event held in Quebec, Canada. They registered a 7-5, 5-7, 10-7 victory over their opponents to secure a last four spot on Wednesday.
The Dutch Czech duo took one hour and thirty-five minutes to overpower Lucic and Oudin in a brutal three setter match at this WTA International event on their first meeting.
Krajicek and Safarova made a shaky start and lost their serve in the opening game to trail 0-1. However, they quickly counter attacked by breaking back in the very next game and squared the scores by 1-1. The seeded pair exchanged
another break in the fifth and sixth game and then held their remaining serves. In the last game, they converted another breakpoint chance to their advantage to clinch the first set by winning seven games to five. The Dutch Czech pair registered an impressive
75 percent win on their slightly lower first serve share and capitalised on three out of five breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to win easily.
The Croat American team re-focused in the second set and their efforts came handy when they took the first blood in the third game. Regardless of squaring the scores in the eighth game after gifting away their serve, the pair broke
Krajicek and Safarova’s serve again in the eleventh game to pocket the equaliser with a 7-5 win. They clobbered an equal first serve share of 63 percent but earned an excellent 68 percent win on it. Furthermore, they warded off four out of five breakpoints
faced and converted half of the four breakpoint chances to their advantage.
Krajicek and Safarova came back on track in the deciding super tie-breaker. Despite clobbering a lower first serve share of 44 percent as opposed to their rivals’ 50 percent, they earned a plausible 50 percent win on it. The seeded
duo eventually clinched the decider with a 10-7 score line.
They will next face British German team of Heather Watson and Kathrin Worle who trashed Americans, Amanda Fink and Ashley Weinhold in straight sets to reach this spot.
Tags: